Gioco d'Amore
by Haine-of-Winter
Summary: An old prey of Hibari's is back. He hasn't forgotten what was said on that one rainy day. He will catch his prey, no matter what. But what if she refuses to fight him? What will he do then? HibarixOc rated M-for detailed gore and (maybe) sexual scenes later on. *REVISED PROLOGUE AND CH 1 UP* NOW CAN BE FOUND UNDER THE k.Hibari and OC filters!
1. Prologue

_**Hello to everyone! Guess who's back? Yeah, that's right, me! That's who! I'm happy to have finally had the time to edit this series and actually get somewhere with it. **_

_**I'm just going to say clearly, that a big part of my hiatus was because of KHR actually finishing. I think I lost a lot of motivation to continue after that… TT-TT But here I am, back again. Hopefully I'll be able to keep this story going without my weekly KHR intakes… Hopefully…**_

_**Weeeellll, here is the first updated chapter of **_**Gioco D'Amore**_**. I hope everyone will enjoy! XD**_

_**Edit: Ooops, I forgot to put a disclaimer here. Okay I don't own KHR, Akira Amano does.**_

* * *

_The rain poured down relentlessly._

_Specks of blood stained the little girl's cheeks. They streamed down her face, as if they were tears of blood originating from her deep ruby eyes. Flecks of the blood stained her pure sliver hair as they attached to the flat locks sticking to her back._

_A groan emitted from the ground before her. She turned her dazed gaze to the noise._

_Several older boys lay unconscious on the wet pavement. They unknowingly groaned in pain, as they bled from several wounds inflicted upon them._

_The girl stared at them, unfazed by the site. It had been her who had beaten the boys into unconsciousness._

_It had been their faults. They had done something they never should have … they had hurt her friend._

_The little girl stared at the soft bundle in her arms. The snow white kitten trembled in pain. There was a gash where its right eye was. It bled profusely from the slash savagely made by the boys' knife._

_The girl trembled, clutching the kitten closer to her. Tears pooled in her eyes and they fell down her cheeks, mixing with the rain._

_"L-Lily…" the girl's voice choked on a sob as she tried helplessly to stop the bleeding._

Crunch

_The girl's head whipped up in alarm. Her eyes landed on the lone figure standing at the edge of the park and was surprised to see it was a boy close to her age._

_His short messy black hair was glued to his face by the drenching rain. Even though, in one of his hands was an umbrella, he chose not to use it. Instead he let it hang uselessly folded by his side, as if he enjoyed being wet more than being dry under the gloomy sky._

_His onyx eyes coldly appraised the situation before him. He had witnessed what the girl had done._

_He had been on his way home, when he had seen the girl confronting the older boys. He had watched, as she had begged and pleaded with them to give her back the kitten. But they had refused, and even had slashed the poor creature with a knife. The boy had been enraged himself at the boys barbaric actions and had been about to attack the older boys, when the unexpected happened._

_The girl knew how to fight._

_A switch had seemed to flip inside her head, as he had witnessed the girl lunge at the older boys with no mercy._

_At first, the boy had been surprised. She was only half their size. How could she beat them? But as he stood back and observed, one by one, the boys had fallen to the girl's skills._

_The boy found this… amusing._

_She was a carnivore, not a herbivore. And he truly wanted to know who was the more powerful of the two carnivores…_

_He strode into the park, until he stood before the girl. She stared at him with that dazed look, which shone with wariness at his presence._

_"Who-"_

_"Fight me." The boy proclaimed, pointing his umbrella at the girl like a sword._

_The girl stared at him for several seconds, before – without a word – she turned and started to walk away._

_The boy's eyebrows rose in amusement. She had turned her back on him, another carnivore, without thinking of the consequences._

_The boy lunged at the girl, swinging the umbrella in his hand at her head._

_And just as swiftly, the girl pivoted around. Leaning her upper body back, she avoided the umbrella's swing. Her foot flew up and a snap was heard as the umbrella broke in two._

_The boy scowled at the umbrella since it had not fulfilled its duties as an effective weapon. He threw the useless object away and reached into his sleeve, intending to bring out his actual weapon –_

_"P-Please, stop…"_

_His hand stilled. His onyx eyes stared at the girl before him._

_Her lips trembled as tears slid down her cheeks. Even as they mixed with the rain, he could make out the water escaping her shimmering ruby eyes._

_The girl sobbed, "I d-don't want to fight…" She held out the kitten, allowing the boy to see just how much blood pooled in her hands from its wounds. "Help… Please…"_

_The boy was silent as he stared at the kitten. The silence grew, and the girl looked down in despair. With thoughts that the boy would not help her, she had been about to turn and run to get different help, when the sound of a footstep sounded._

_She looked up. The boy approached her with solid strides, until he was right in front of her. He rummaged in his pockets. From within, he produced a white handkerchief. Soundlessly, he reached for the kitten in the girl's arms. She flinched a little, but didn't move away as the boy gently tilted the kittens head so he was seeing the wound completely. He then proceeded to wrap the cloth around the kittens hurt eye, tightly enough to staunch the blood, but not enough to put the kitten in even more pain._

_After finishing, he stepped away and turned, striding away from the girl. He paused at the park entrance, glancing behind him. "Aren't you coming?" he questioned her over his shoulder._

_The girl blinked in confusion. However, within a second she realized he wanted her to follow him. As soon as the realization passed, she hurried towards him._

_Knowing that she was following, the boy continued out of the park, with the girl trailing after him. He led her down a maze of streets until they ended up in front of a small shop. The sign was rundown, but still readable, as it boldly declared that it was a veterinarian's office._

_The girl smiled happily, knowing that her friend could be saved. Turning towards the boy, she gave him a soft smile, "Thank you…"_

_She expected him to reply "You're welcome", however, the boy's face was expressionless once more._

_"I'll leave you alone for today… herbivore. But when tomorrow comes… We will fight." The boy announced, his onyx eyes flashing coldly at her._

_The girl bit her lip. Her eyes downcast as she replied quietly, "Tomorrow will never happen…"_

_"Why do you say that?"_

_"Because I will be leaving Namimori tomorrow…"_

_"Fine, but until then you are my prey." the girl's eyes rose in shock at his statement. The boy stared at her with resolute eyes. He leaned closer, until his eyes were at her level. "You better come back, herbivore, or," his lips lifted into a predatory smirk, "I'll bite you to death."_

_Before the girl could reply, the boy turned and swiftly strode away from her. She watched him disappear into the rain's mist._

_Her mind contemplated the boy's statement. But, she shook her head, knowing that it was not the time to be thinking about such things._

_The girl walked to the door of the veterinarian's and opened the door to the inside. As she quietly stepped through the threshold, a whisper passed her lips, "I hope I can keep your promise…"_

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**_AN#2: How did everyone think? It's greatly different from the original, right? It's actually really hard for me to rewrite everything because I liked how the original was. However, at the same time it's nice to know I am changing everything for the better of this story. :) I just hope this does not disappoint the people who had already read the older versions of these chapters… TT-TT_ **


	2. A blast from the past

The girl's lungs inhaled the crisp morning air. A smile lit upon her face as cherry blossoms floated to the ground in the gentle breeze.

She hadn't been in Namimori for 3 years. She was excited to be in her birthplace, but also nervous to be starting a new life here once again.

The girl swayed slightly as her crimson eyes took in the beautiful scenery around her. On each side of the path she was on, were large cherry blossom trees. Her wavy silver hair was loose as it flowed with the breeze, caressing her cheek. Chuckling, she removed the hair from her face and gazed up into the sky, _it's so peaceful here … If only time would stand still…_

"Mew…"

Startled by the small cry, the teen looked down. Rubbing against her leg, was a snow white cat, which mewed with want of attention.

Upon seeing the cat, the corners of her lips lifted into a smile. She crouched down and rubbed the cat behind the ears. The cat purred in appreciation, gazing at the girl adoringly with crimson eyes, the right, dulled out by a scar that ran vertically over it.

Her caresses paused. She stared at the mark on the cat's face, and all she could remember was that rainy day 3 years ago. The day her friend had gotten the scar and the day that she would remember the most… Because all she could think about was the boy who had made her his _prey_ that day.

_"I'll leave you alone for today… herbivore. But when tomorrow comes… We _will_ fight."_

_"Tomorrow will never happen…"_

_"Why do you say that?"_

_"Because I will be leaving Namimori tomorrow…"_

_"Fine, but until then you are _my prey_."_

_"You better come back, herbivore..."_

A shiver crawled up her spine whenever she remembered that boy. Though the events of that day had not made much of an impression – because she had been in that _faze_ – she still remembered it clearly… And all she could see were those cold dark metallic eyes glaring at her. The way he had smirked… It was definitely one of a hunter. But… whenever she thought about it, it wasn't fear that she felt. That wasn't it… it was something she couldn't describe, something that had stayed with her for the past 3 years...

"Meow…"

Snapped from her thoughts, she looked down. Her cat rubbed its head impatiently against her arm to get her owner's attention. The girl laughed at the cat's annoyance and rubbed the cat under its chin to soothe its anger.

"Okay, okay, I get it Lily. No more daydreaming for me."

The cat meowed as a reply and then changed its focus onto a fluttering cherry blossom. It swatted at the descending petal as it danced out of the cat's grip.

The girl watched merrily as the cat happily pounced after the petal. However, her expression turned questionable as she saw Lily pause in her pouncing. The cat's ear twitched and the cat stared further down the path. The girl gazed that way too.

"What's wrong Lily?" the girl questioned as she stood and approached the cat. Lily looked to her master, meowing happily, before she suddenly dashed off down the path.

"Lily!" the girl called, as she followed the cat. They ran off the path and onto the streets of the city.

Early as it was, there were not many people on the streets of Namimori. The girl was thankful for that as she doubted she would have been able to follow Lily if there were more people crowding the streets.

Lily raced quickly down the streets with a one track mind. The girl followed after, keeping up with the cat as much as possible with all the twists and turns Lily seemed determined to take. Soon a more wooded path loomed in front of them and they ran down it.

When the cat made a sharp turn off the path and into the woods beside them, the girl followed after, only to discover that the cat was nowhere to be seen.

"Lily!" she called, but no answer came back, "Lily! Where are you?" Her ears wide, she just caught the sound of a faint meow coming from in front of her. She raced forward, exiting the little forest. Her foot landed on a cement tile as she entered a little clear space surrounded by many cherry blossom trees. A meowing caught her attention and she turned to the source of the sound.

Standing before a cherry blossom tree – much larger than the rest – was a young man. The sight of which sent the girl's heart beat racing.

The man held Lily in his arms as he rubbed the cat's chin, earning purrs from the feline. The man's head was down, but she saw that he had a familiar head of messy black hair…

Lily's ear perked and her head twisted as she mewed in greeting to her friend. The man noticed and looked to where the cat was gazing.

The girl stood frozen at the sight of familiar onyx eyes. They held the same cold metallic shine like before, all those years ago. The glare he was sending her was filled with annoyance at her presence. She was forced to still her shaking hands into fists at his intense gaze.

_Why, now of all times…? He can't possible remember… _taking a deep breath, she took a step forward, greeting, "Um, hello." The man's eye twitched in irritation, stopping her from advancing further.

She stood in awkward silence as he examined her. Shivers crawled down her back and she had to wrap a hand around her arm to keep herself still under his scrutinizing gaze.

"That's… um, my cat you're holding…" she tried once again to make conservation, but was glared into silence once more.

A frown lit her face. She gazed to the side, trying to think of a way out.

_He doesn't remember… So, why won't he give Lily back?_

_Crunch_

Her head swiveled forward at the sound of a footstep. The man stopped where he stood, one foot forward as if to approach her. The man's brows rose in amusement at her reaction, the beginning of a smirk forming. While the girl's head tilted in confusion, the man moved Lily into the crook of one arm. With his hand free, he flicked his wrist and something slid out of his sleeve. The object unfolded with a _click_ and shined bright as the silver reflected the sun's rays.

The girl's eyes widened at the sight of the object as she comprehended what it was. A tonfa. A large rod of silver attached to a black grip – which the man held firmly within his grasp, a weapon, which the girl did not want to get acquainted with.

The girl opened her mouth to say something –

When, in the blink of an eye, the man disappeared.

She did not get to contemplate for a moment what had just happened, for she felt a rush of air from behind her. On instinct, she pivoted around, leaning back to avoid the blow. She was astonished to see that it was the man, who had somehow reappeared behind her and had just attacked her with his tonfa.

"W-Wait! I don't want to fight you!" she protested as she was forced to hop away from another swing of his tonfa. He followed her close, stabbing forward towards her head. She was forced to spin to the side to avoid the blow. However, he spun himself around and caught her in the gut with the full force of his spin.

The devastating force of the hit sent her flying into the large cherry blossom. Her mouth opened in a silent scream from the impact. She was sure one of her ribs was broken as she labored to breath past the pain. Her eyes focused on the man as he stalked towards her, tonfa ready to strike. She tried to move, but could not, due to the pain in her ribs.

The man stood in front of her. She could have attempted to kick the man at that distance, if it weren't for Lily still being in the man's arm. The cat could get hurt from the confrontation, and the girl would not allow that to happen.

She watched the man pull his arm back to strike and she squeezed her eyes shut, anticipating the pain. She heard a loud _crunch_, and thought that he had definitely killed her, when she noticed that there was no pain. Cautiously opening one eye, the girl saw the tonfa was right beside her head, crushed into the tree. The man's face was only a few inches away from her. Her whole face burned red at the closeness of their proximity.

The man was glaring at her, "Were you trying to run away after all this time, herbivore?"

She blinked in surprise, then gasped in amazement, "Y-You remember?"

As if the offended the man's glare deepened into a scowl. He let the tonfa go, and roughly grabbed her chin. Making sure she couldn't look away he stated, "You're _my_ prey. My prey _never_ gets away."

"B-but it's been 3 years-"

"Hn, doesn't matter. Prey is still prey." He said realizing her chin. "Now you will keep your word," he grabbed a hold of the tonfa beside her and wrenched it free, pointing it towards her, "or I'll bite you to death."

The girl bit her lip thoughtfully. She had to think of some excuse out of fighting him… then she remembered the reason why she had been out early in the morning in the first place. She hesitantly glanced at the man, explaining, "I-I… I can't right now. I need to go drop off my transfer papers to-"

"Namimori High?"

The girl gaped at him, "How did_ you_ know?"

"I don't need to answer your questions, herbivore," he growled, his glare intensifying each moment.

"O-okay." She squeaked as she painfully removed herself from the tree. The moment she did so, a tonfa was held right at her throat, making her freeze once more. She sighed in frustration, "Would you please stop that? I really don't want to fight you, especially with you holding Lily hostage."

"The feline seems comfortable enough."

Just to prove it, Lily stretched her head up to his chin, and rubbed her head against him lovingly. The man gave a smirk before retracting his tonfa from the girl's neck and used that hand to rub the cat's chin.

_Traitor… Hmm?_

The girl noticed something strange behind the man's head. She squinted, trying to get a better look at the thing slowly approaching.

"Hey, what is that?" she pointed behind the man at the thing behind him.

Annoyed, the man turned to see the intrusion. As it got closer, it turned out the object was a small yellow bird flying towards them. The man did not seemed surprised as the bird swooped down and landed on his head with a puff, chirping, "Hibari! Hibari!"

"Hibari? Is that your name?" the girl questioned.

Ignoring her, the man turned his attention back to the little bird, "What is it?"

"Gang fight! Gang fight!"

"Where?"

"Namimori High! Namimori High!" the bird cried in urgency.

The girl squeaked in surprise when an aura of bloodlust surrounded the man at the bird's words. Another squeak escaped her lips, as the man suddenly whirled around and placed Lily within her arms. Two foldable tonfa flicked into his hands as he started to march away from the little square. However he halted and gazed back over his shoulder, his murderous glare sending ripples down her spine; "We'll finish this later. Don't even try to run away herbivore, or I'll bite you to death." And with that, Hibari marched off towards Namimori High, leaving the girl confused as what to do next.

After thinking for a moment, she sighed and painfully dragged herself after Hibari. She needed to get to the school anyway, so the best course of action was to follow the man with the murderous aura.

* * *

She had successfully made it to the school, staying as far away as she could from Hibari while tailing him. Lily was taking a cat nap in her arms as she talked with the principal about her _special_ arrangements.

Discussion finished, she stood and left the office receiving a schedule from the secretary at the desk. Deciding it would be a good idea to locate her classroom ahead of time, she strolled down the hall to a flight of stairs, _this says my class is on the 3__rd__ floor. I'm on the first so I should go up…_

"I'll jump the stairs EXTREMELY!"

The girl looked up the stairs and saw a man in a Namimori school uniform jumping towards her... from the top of the stairs. All she glimpsed was white short spiky hair as the man –literally – flew into her. They tumbled into a heap of tangled limbs; the girl protecting the cat from the weight of the man now on top of her.

"Ow, ow, ow…" she whined her ribs hurting now more than they did before.

"Sorry about that!" the man on top of her shouted, unfortunately right into her ear, "I didn't see you there!"

"That's okay," the girl sighed, after making sure Lily was okay from the tumble. She looked up at the man and turned a deep shade of red, when she noticed how close the man's face was to her own. She could see his silver-gold eyes in full detail and saw that above his left eye was a tiny scar. Their noses practically touched and she could feel his warm breath fluttering her bangs. Looking away she continued, "C-could you please g-get o-off of me?"

"Right!" the man said untangling himself from the girl, and helped her stand, "I've never seen you before, are you new?"

"Yes…"

"That's cool!" the man replied with a huge grin, "I'm Sasagawa Ryohei, 3rd year. What's your name?"

"I'm Tsuki Amore, a 2nd year. It's nice to meet you Ryohei-san." she smiled in return to Ryohei's grin, "And this is Lily, my cat." she continued pointing down to the napping cat, who had somehow stayed asleep through the whole ordeal.

"What class are you in Amore?"

"Um, class 2-B." she replied glancing at the crumpled schedule in her hand, "Why?"

"Hey, you're in the same class as my sister." Ryohei grinned, "Her name's Kyoko. She'll help you fit right into Namimori."

"Really? That would be nice…" Amore smiled, excited that she might make a friend at the school.

"Yep! Kyoko's nice to everyone so don't worry about being new. Just live life to the EXTREME while you're here!" Ryohei encouraged slapping Amore on the back. Hard.

_Crack_

Ryohei's face froze at the sound of Amore's rib cracking, _definitely broken_, she thought as she winced in pain, and tipped over. Ryohei caught her as she fell and hoisted her back up onto her feet, "What was that sound?"

"Um, nothing…" she trailed off stepping away from Ryohei, cringing a little in the process, "I-uh-I've got to go. I'll see you tomorrow. Bye Ryohei-san!" She turned and fled before Ryohei could further question her. Leaving the school she stopped and looked back at the tall wide brick building from the gate.

Even though she was in immense pain, her lips curved into a small smile as she absently pet Lily on the head, _See you tomorrow, Namimori High…_

Turning she walked away from the school and headed down the street to get to her new home – and also to go and get her ribs checked out.

Unbeknownst to her, Hibari watched Amore leave the school from a window on the 3rd floor. His eyes flashed metallic as he watched her disappear from sight.

Tomorrow…Tomorrow would be when they would fight. And this time…he would surely bite her to death.

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AN#2: **_Well, here is edited chapter 1! Hopefully, the new prologue was good… right? J Anyways~ I didn't really have to do a whole lot with this chapter, like I did with the prologue. It's probably going to be like this from now on, as I go. I am only trying to really help the plot line for this story, so I can always hope the best will come out of my editing.  
_**

**_Edit: I keep on forgetting to add the disclaimers back in. -o- I don't own KHR. If I did we would all know why the hell Hibari is so obsessed with Namimori..._**


	3. Making Friends

**_DISCLAIMER: (Yay, I remembered to put this here again! J) Anyways, I do not own KHR, Akira Amano does._**

* * *

_Are you kidding me?!_

Amore glanced around the edge of a tree, trying to keep herself as hidden as possible. She could see a clear view of Namimori High's front gates from where she was. However, unlike all her fellow students who walked towards the gates, she hid even further behind the tree because _he _was standing right beside the gates.

Hibari leaned against the gate of the school, his expression cold as he watched the students file into the school for the day. His school jacket was slung over his shoulders, a red band pinned to the sleeve with "Disciplinary Committee" written on it. His gaze seemed to reach to the very soul as students flinched when he focused on them. Most of them ended up bowing their heads and rushing into the school, just to escape his piercing gaze.

Amore leaned against the tree to contemplate. She knew he was looking for her. Knew he would be ready to strike as soon as his gaze found her. And she knew that _he knew_ that those were the only gates to get inside the school, other than the back entrance.

She peeked around the tree again.

She considered taking the time to walk around the school, so she could enter through the back. The walk would make her late for her very first day…

She let her eyes roam the school. It was completely surrounded by large white walls of brick, which bordered the entire school, yard included. She could see that higher levels of the school and noticed as well, several trees tops poking up just above the other side of the walls. Amore perked up at the sight. Letting her eyes roam further down the wall, they landed on a group of trees which were placed conveniently beside it, not too far away from her hiding place. She could see that the trees continued to form in a line of spaced groups further down the wall.

Joyous for the discovery, Amore cautiously weaved her way through groups of students heading towards the school. All the while, she kept an eye out for Hibari's gaze, making sure he did not spot her. She sighed in relief when she finally reached the first group of trees without being spotted by Hibari.

Glancing upward, a wrench was thrown into her plan.

The lowest branch of the trees around her was around three meters tall and with her small height it would be impossible to reach it. Unless…

Amore, glanced around her, making sure no one was watching. Taking a couple of steps away from the tree, she slung her bag securely onto her shoulder and flipped her hair back, which were in two braids, out of her way. Taking a deep breath, she steeled her resolve, and ran towards the tree.

One… two… three steps later she was in the air, grabbing the closest branch to her. Quick as a rabbit, she swung herself onto the branch so she was straddling it. She cast a glance below and around the trees to make sure no one had seen her. Sighing in relief, as she comprehended that no one saw her; she scrambled up and began to climb the tree.

By the time she stepped from the tree to the wall she had a dull pain in her chest from her ribs. Luckily only _one _was broken, but the climb had put enough pressure on them to the point that she was left trying to catch her breath. After calming her breathing, she began to assess her situation.

There were three ways to get down.

One, jump down from where she was, which was about a one story drop. She did not relish the thought of more pain and more broken bones – one broken rib was enough for her.

Two, walk over to the closest cropping of trees and climb down from there. It would have been the easier of the choices, if only the closest group of trees didn`t happen to be right beside the front gates. Amore doubted that Hibari would not notice her climbing down when he was practically underneath her.

The third choice… The school sports equipment shed.

The shed was perched right against the wall she was on and was also farther away from the front gates. The shed wasn't as high as the school wall, but it would have to do.

Cautiously, she made her way over to the equipment shed using the trees along the outside of the wall as coverage. She reached her destination without fail and looked down at the roof of the equipment shed. It was maybe a meter drop. She would have no problem dropping down from the wall. The roof itself would be the problem.

The roof was slanted steeply. She would have to be extra careful when hopping onto it, so as not to fall off.

Carefully, Amore lowered herself onto the ledge of the wall. She slid off the edge hanging slightly above the roof. Looking down, she saw that her feet almost reached the highest point of the roof. Relieved, she let herself drop with a little thump and landed on the roof perfectly. She cautiously made her way to one of the roofs slanted edges. She heard a door slide open beneath her. As she peered down she saw a head full of short black spikey hair belonging to a male student exit the equipment shed.

_I better go down the other side_, Amore thought as she started to back away from the edge. Unfortunately, her foot caught onto an upturned shingle. Instead of backing away, she stumbled forward, right over the edge of the roof.

A yelp of alarm was all she could shout as she plummeted down towards the ground. She braced herself for her possible demise as she curled into a ball, praying that the most damage caused would be more broken bones.

However, her impact with the ground never happened. All she viewed was a blue blur as she collided with an object, taking it down with her.

Painfully, she and the object she hit toppled down onto the ground. While her breath hissed between her clenched teeth, as immense pain shot through her ribs, she was thanking whatever gods are out there that she was still alive.

"Are you alright?"

Shocked, her eyes shot open as the object below her began to move. She stared dumbfounded at the boy below her. She recognized him as the student who had been leaving the shed before she fell. And now he was being used as a cushion by her…

The boy sat up, and Amore slid into his lap as he gazed down at her. His brown eyes were full of concern as he repeated, "Are you alright?"

"Y-Yes."

The boy smiled charmingly at her in relief, "That's good. You should be more careful on roofs, they're tricky."

_Shouldn't you be asking why I was on the roof in the first place_, she wondered as she replied, "R-right."

"Good." He continued to smile at her as silence stretched between them. She wondered why he wasn't getting up. Then she remembered… she was sitting on him.

"S-Sorry!" she squeaked in apology as she practically threw herself off of his lap.

"Maa, maa, it's alright." The boy chuckled carefully as he stood, wiping the dirt off himself. He looked at her with a kind smile and offered her a hand, "You're new here, right?"

"How does everyone seem to know I'm new?" Amore questioned as she clasped his hand gratefully with one of her own.

"Most of the people at the school have all went to middle school together." He explained as he hefted her up onto her feet. "Plus," she looked at him quizzically as he continued, "I think your hair might have given you away."

"My hair?"

"Yeah, I doubt there's any other girl in the school with pretty silver hair like yours."

"O-oh, thank you." She blushed at the compliment, looking at the ground bashfully.

"My name's Yamamoto Takeshi." He said with a grin, stretching his hand out in greeting, "What's your name?"

"Tsuki Amore." She replied grasping his hand for a brief shake.

Just as they stopped shaking, a distinct _ding dong_ travelled from the school's PA system. School was officially started.

Amore groaned. She had wanted to avoid being late for her first day. All the trouble she had gone through was for nothing…

"Woah, there goes the bell. We better hurry." Yamamoto pronounced. Turning towards her, he asked, "Where do you need to go?"

"My class is in room 2-B, but I was supposed to meet my teacher in the office..."

"Hey, what do you know? We're in the same class!" Yamamoto revealed with a huge grin. He turned and started strolling towards the school. He glanced back over his shoulder and called, "The teacher is probably already in class. We might as well head there together."

"Okay!" Amore answered with an equal smile as she hurried to catch up to him.

"So…" she paused, not sure how to continue as they walked into the school together.

"So?"

Amore quickly blurted out the first thing on her mind, "Um, uh, h-how come you were in the equipment shed, Yamamoto-kun?"

"I was putting away some baseball equipment."

"Baseball equipment?"

"I'm part of the baseball team." He grinned proudly. Glancing over at her from the corner of his eye as they approached the stairs, he turned the tables on her when he asked, "What were you doing on the equipment shed roof?"

_Darn, I thought he wouldn't ask…_

She was quiet a moment as she contemplated telling him the truth, but soon gave in with a sigh. He deserved to know since she had unceremoniously used him as a cushioning pad.

"I-I was avoiding someone." She murmured quietly, too embarrassed to admit it any louder.

"You were avoiding someone? Who?" Yamamoto questioned surprised, hearing her perfectly fine.

"Shh!" she hissed glancing back and forth to see if anyone was listening, "I don't want anyone to hear!"

"Maa, maa, it's alright, Tsuki-chan, everyone's in class now." Yamamoto nodded, gazing around the empty stairwell.

Realizing he was right, Amore relaxed a bit. She looked at him with a small smile, "I can't tell you who it is."

"How come?"

"I'm not even sure what his name is."

"Really?"

"Yeah-" However, she abruptly paused. A memory tickled at the back of her mind. She pondered for a second, pausing on the step looking thoughtful.

And that was when it hit her.

"Oh right, the bird!" Amore exclaimed suddenly.

Yamamoto jumped in surprise at her sudden outburst, "What bird?"

"There was a little yellow bird. It called the man something. I think the name was-"

"Hibari."

"Yeah, that's his name. But… how did you know, Yamamoto-kun?" Amore inquired. Turning she looked down at Yamamoto and was surprised by the expression on his face. The grin he seemed to always have was gone, replaced by a serious expression as he gazed up at her. There was something in his eyes that almost looked like… worry.

"Yamamoto-kun?"

"How do you know Hibari Kyoya, Tsuki-chan?" he asked his tone as serious as his expression.

"I, um, happened to meet him when I was younger. One thing led to another and, somehow, I sort of… _promised_ to, uh, fight him the next time we met." She explained as best she could without going into to the details.

Yamamoto's whole body stilled at her revelation and he stared at her before finally slowly asking, "Tsuki-chan, do you _want_ to fight Hibari?"

"N-not really…" she mumbled in response, absently rubbing her ribs where they thrummed in pain at the memory of her encounter from yesterday.

Suddenly at her words, his disposition turned sunny once again as he grinned up at her, "That's good."

"W-what's good about what?"

"Hibari loves fighting strong opponents." Yamamoto clarified stepped onto the step she was on. He ruffled her hair as he advised her, "If you avoid fighting him, he'll think you're weak and will probably leave you alone."

"So I should avoid him whenever I can?"

"Yep! Simple right?" he winked good-naturedly as they stepped onto the 3rd floor.

"Here we are, class 2-B!" he announced sliding the door open wide and striding into the room.

Amore trailed in behind him, suddenly nervous as the whole classroom's attention focused on the two of them.

"Yamamoto-san! Why are you so late?" the teacher, a bald old man, questioned as he squinted at the boy behind giant bottle rim shaped glasses.

"Sorry, I was out by the equipment shed and lost track of time talking to the new transfer student." Yamamoto explained, nodding towards where Amore stood nervously behind him.

The teacher's squinty eyes focused on her as his lips turned into a thoughtful frown, "Tsuki-san? I waited for you in the school office, but you never showed."

Amore bowed deeply in apology, "I-I'm so sorry for being so late."

"It doesn't matter now." The teacher waved off the apology as Amore stood straight. "Yamamoto-san go sit down." He ordered pointing to an empty seat near the middle of the classroom. As Yamamoto went to sit the teacher turned to the class and began, "Now, class I would like to introduce the new, and might I add late, transfer student to our class." The class laughed at his added comment, and he continued as soon as they subsided, "Let me introduce your new classmate, Tski Amore."

He waved in Amore's direction as she bowed to the class in greeting. "She just came from living overseas and will be joining our class from now on. You will all treat her with respect, okay?" As the class agreed to his instructions, he pointed towards an empty seat beside the windows of the classroom, speaking to Amore, "You can have a seat there Tsuki-san. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask the person next to you."

Amore walked over to the empty seat as the teacher went back to his lecture. Sitting down, she reached into her bag and took out her books, and started to take notes.

A half an hour into the lesson and the warm sunshine against her skin was making her sleepy. The exhaustion from her ordeal with Hibari and the whole debacle that morning had crept slowly onto her. The warmth from the sun was too much to ignore. She felt her head nodding as her eyes kept drooping shut.

_If only I could take a nap_, she thought as she rubbed her eyes, trying to concentrate as the teacher recounted a famous battle from the Sengoku Era.

All of a sudden, a soft giggle reached Amore's ears. She blinked, and gazed around in confusion. She found the source of the stifled giggles immediately as the girl sitting beside her tried to cover up a large smile behind her hand. Her light brown eyes danced with amusement as she gazed at Amore.

Amore starred at her perplexed, as she whispered from behind her textbook, "Ummm… is something funny?"

The girl shook her head, her short light brunette hair swishing silently with the movement, "I'm sorry," she apologized in a whisper. A kind smile was on her face as she explained, "I couldn't help it, you looked so cute trying to not fall asleep."

Amore blushed in embarrassment, not knowing if to take it as a compliment or not.

"I'm Sasagawa Kyoko. I heard from my Onii-chan that you met him yesterday."

Amore was confused for a moment until she remembered the incident in the stairwell. Thinking about it made her rib throb as the meeting had left her with a broken rib in the end.

"I remember him… Your brother's very… enthusiastic, Sasagawa-chan."

"Oh, you don't need to be so formal since I know we will be good friends." Kyoko explained, smiling kindly at Amore, "You can just call me Kyoko."

"Ok, Kyoko-chan." Amore with happiness at Kyoko's statement, pleased to make another friend on her first day – as she counted Yamamoto as another friend. "Same for you too, just call me Amore."

"Hehe, ok, Amore-chan." Kyoko's expression turned curious as she whispered behind her hand, "So… was my Onii-chan really _loud_ when you met him?"

"A tiny bit, actually."

"He's always like that, you'll get used to it soon enough. Everyone does, when it comes to Onii-chan."

"They-" Amore began until a cough close by caught her attention. Glancing at her side, she realized the teacher was standing between her and Kyoko's desks, a frown on his face.

"I hope I'm not interrupting anything, Tsuki-san, Sasagawa-san." He commented an eyebrow rose in intrigue at their answer.

"She was just asking me for clarification on some of the warlords of the Sengoku Era, Mori-sensei." Kyoko quickly clarified.

"It is good that you are following my advice, Tsuki-san, but please pay more attention to the lesson you two." Mori-sensei huffed in admonishment as he trudged back to the front of the class, continuing his lesson as he went.

Amore and Kyoko both sighed in relief smiling at each other before respectively turning their attentions to their own notes. The smile continued to stay on Amore's face as she dutifully wrote down her notes for the rest of the class.

* * *

Lunch came with the ringing bells across the PA system and the teacher ended the science class with a reminder for homework to be done by tomorrow before shuffling out of the room. Students gathered into groups as they either stayed inside the room to chat and eat or wandered out of the classroom to go to the cafeteria to acquire lunches or go outside to eat.

Amore contemplated where she would eat. Yamamoto had already invited her to eat with him and some of his teammates from his baseball team, but she had declined not feeling quite comfortable yet to eat with so many she didn't know yet. The weather was nice outside, and she contemplated going there to eat. She shook her head negatively at the thought as she realized that if she ate outside she might likely run into Hibari, and she wasn't willing to get anymore broken ribs.

Sighing in resignation, she plopped back into her seat and rummaged in her bag for her lunch. She opened her lunch box and began eating her lunch in silence, staring longingly outside…

"Amore-chan!"

Her name being cheerfully called pulled Amore's attention from her reverie and she glanced beside her.

Kyoko was taking a seat at her desk as a girl with long dark brunette hair pulled out a chair and sat at the desk in front of her. They were both looking at her, Kyoko with a bright smile, the other with an indifferent look.

"Do you mind if we join you?" Kyoko asked cheerfully and kind smile plastered in her face.

"No, go right ahead." Amore allowed, as she smiled back at Kyoko happily.

"I'm Kurokawa Hana, but you can just call me Hana." The girl introduced herself as she took out her own lunch box and began munching on it.

"Nice to meet you, Hana-chan."

"Like wise." Hana answered, "So… you came from overseas. Where did you live before coming here?"

"I lived in Canada. But before that I was living in Germany."

"So you speak English and German fluently?"

"Yep." Amore agreed as she continued, "I can also speak Chinese, French, Korean and Italian fluently as well."

Hana whistled, impressed. "Wow, that's a lot of languages."

"Well, we've never stayed in one country for too long so I've had to pick up a lot of the languages." Amore explained, rubbing the back of her neck bashfully.

"How come you've never stayed in one country long?" Kyoko asked curious by Amore's wording.

"That's a good question…" Amore murmured in reply as she chewed on some rice.

Kyoko and Hana glanced at each other in confusion from Amore's cryptic answer. "What do you mean by that, Amore-chan?"

"It's a secret." Amore smiled mischievously at them, continuing to eat contentedly.

After a moment of confused silence, Hana and Kyoko shrugged their shoulders in nonchalance and began to ask more questions of Amore's time in Canada.

The lunch period was coming to a close. Amore and Kyoko were trying to get Hana to confess who her secret crush was, which the dark brunette had accidently made mention of. She had said she had wanted to cook a stew for a boy she knew, which had sent the two other girls into suspicion mode. They had prodded Hana with questions until she reluctantly had admitted having a crush on someone. Amore and Kyoko were trying to weasel information from Hana, especially Kyoko who was more curious because her best friend wouldn't tell her who it was.

"Who is it?" Kyoko pouted, large shimmering light brown eyes pleading towards her friend.

"I'm not telling you." Hana denied, crossing her arms determinedly across her chest.

"Is he in our grade?"

"I'm not telling."

"I think that means 'yes.'" Amore concluded as she put away her finished lunch.

"No it doesn't." Hana scowled in irritation.

"So that must mean he's not in our grade." Amore smiled knowingly. A blush of embarrassment crossed Hana's face in confirmation. Amore laughed, and leaned on her hand thoughtfully, "Is he older than us?"

"I'm not telling you."

Kyoko leaned over to Amore as she whispered conspiratorially, "I'm going to say he is."

"I can hear you, you know." Hana scowled in irritation at her friend as she pointed at her friend defensively, "And what about you and Tsuna?"

"What about me and Tsu-kun?" Kyoko blinked confusedly.

Hana smirked evilly as she continued, "How far have you gone with him? Have you already reached th-"

"Hana!" Kyoko screeched in embarrassment, covering Hana's mouth with her hands to stop her in mid sentence. A deep blush covered her cheeks, "What Tsu-kun and I do is none of your business!"

Hana rolled her eyes and removed Kyoko's hands from her face, "Yeah, yeah."

"Who's Tsuna?" Amore enquired, her interest piqued to who the person was.

"He's-"

"Arrgh!"

A loud yell of pain coming from outside cut Kyoko off and the three girls stared outside the window to see what was going on.

In the yard below was a literal blood bath. There was a large of men scattered across the ground, all beaten to a pulp. Blood was seen over the ground as the men groaned in agony. In the middle of the massacre stood a calm Hibari, who stared at the groaning men with cold eyes.

He turned towards an Elvis hair styled man that approached him and briefly gave him what seemed to be orders before walking calmly from the scene towards the school.

"He's at it again?" Hana commented as they watched more Elvis hair styled men clean up the bloodied men.

_He's terrifyingly strong_, Amore admitted in her head as she counted at least twenty men lying on the ground in pools of their own blood. _I was lucky to escape yesterday…_ she absently rubbed her sore ribs as they pained consciously at the memory as he eyes followed the figure of the dangerous man.

Abruptly, as if sensing their gaze on him, Hibari glanced up. Amore felt herself blanch, as his eyes made contact with hers. She swore she saw his lips tug up slightly in a predator smirk before he disappeared into the school.

"Was it just me or was Hibari looking straight at us?" Hana questioned as she sat back into her seat.

"I think so…" Kyoko agreed a contemplative look on her face as she continued, "But what would he want from us? It's not like we've done anything wrong."

"What do you mean?" Amore asked, worry knotting her stomach.

"Hibari Kyoya is the Head Prefect of the Disciplinary Committee." Hana replied as she finished her lunch off. "The Prefect's enforce the rules of Namimori under Hibari's orders. If you caught breaking the rules, you're punished… by force."

"Are they that scary?"

"Well not really, it's just Hibari who's the scary one. If you have any problems that involve the school you can just go down the hall to the Reception Room. That's pretty much where Hibari is all the time."

Amore abruptly stood from her seat. Her chair crashed onto the floor as she slammed her hands on her desk leaning on it for support as she stared at Hana. Her words repeated through her head, _the Reception Room down the hall… Hibari is there all the time…_

_I'm dead_, Amore gulped pass the fear clogging her throat to ask shakily, "D-did you just say that the Reception Room is on _this_ floor? And that Hibari hangs out there?"

"Yeah…" Hana replied slowly, not sure why Amore seemed to suddenly look very pale like she had gotten sick. "Hibari took over the room, since it's the best in the whole school."

"Amore-chan, are you okay? You don't look so good." Kyoko interjected, noticing as well the way Amore's whole body seemed to shake, "Do you need to go to the nurse's office?"

"Umm… N-no, I'm fine."

"Are you sure?"

"Y-yeah, I-I just forgot I need to do something." Amore shakily replied as she righted her fallen chair and started to back away towards the door. "I talk to you guys later!" Amore bolted from the room and headed straight for the stairs at breakneck speed.

"That was weird." Hana commented, staring at the door where Amore had rushed out of.

"She really looked like she was sick…" Kyoko murmured in concern as she kept her gaze fixed on the door.

Hana stared at her friend, knowing that she could be a worry-wart over the littlest of things. Sighing she got up, "… Fine. Let's go."

Kyoko smiled warmly at Hana as she followed her friend to the door.

The exited the room… and almost ran smack dab into the Head Prefect himself.

Hibari didn't even acknowledge the two girls as he strode past them, heading for the stairs. They watched him ascend upwards before turning towards the opposite direction to the other staircase.

They were walking down the stairs when Hana suddenly mumbled, "I forgot to tell her…"

"Forgot to tell her what?"

"You know, that, Hibari's other hangout is on the roof."

* * *

Amore breathed in a deep breath, relishing the cool spring air. Her heart beat was slowing down as she leaned against the roof's fence.

The roof had seemed to be the best option to go to as it didn't seem many students hung out there. There was nothing much there anyways, only a large water tank enclosed by a little fence.

The only other thing was the sky.

Amore adored gazing up at the sky. She was always fascinated by the many forms the sky could take. From stormy to clear blue skies, the sky seemed to fascinate her in no way anything else could. What she loved the most about the sky were clouds. They were the most entertaining to watch. She had spent many hours of the day just watching the clouds as they shifted from shape to the next. Clouds had been the only constant thing in her dismal childhood…

Amore shook the negative thoughts away as she went back to scrutinizing whether one particular cloud was a bunny or a fox.

She had finally decided that the cloud indeed resembled a bunny when the sound of the roof door closing caught her attention. She turned to see who had come onto the roof… and froze when she realized too late who it was.

Casually leaning against the closed door was the dark menacing Head Prefect himself.

Hibari's eyes were filled with soul rendering accuracy as he casually took his tonfa out of his sleeves.

That was when Amore realized…

This time she couldn't escape.

* * *

**_AN#2: Here's the third revised addition of _****Gioco D'Amore****_. Like the Prologue this chapter has changed quite a bit. Hopefully all the changes are good. Now if only anyone would actually see that there any changes… doesn't seem to count updating current chapters as updating the actual story, so it still says it hasn't updated…_**


	4. Traitor, Once Again

_**Disclaimer: I don't own KHR. If I did then Hibari would get a lot more show time, and Amore wouldn't be an OC she would actually be a part of the story. **_

_** I've been so swamped with school lately that I haven't been able to work on anything. So much for my updating -TT **_

_** After I finished my last chapter, my sister looked at it, and you want to know what she said? She said that I like to torture poor Amore! XC I do not torture the poor girl. Sure I put her in situations where she has to confront Hibari and his deadly tonfas, and she may have broken a rib in the first chapter, but that doesn't mean that I torture her, does it?... *looks back at what was typed* Ok, maybe I do torture her a **__**tiny**__** bit, but it's only to allow the story to advance and grow! XC…I'm such a bad person, aren't I? *sigh* _-_

* * *

**_

Amore looked on horrified as Hibari took out his tonfas and held them ready; a smirk gracing his lips.

_I'm such an idiot! It's like one of those stupid horror films, where the heroine runs up to the roof; only to get trapped there_, Amore mind-face palmed herself, stepping back as the skylark advanced forward.

"No running away this time, herbivore." Hibari stated in a cold calculating voice, "I'll bite you to death for eluding me."

"Hey, can't we just talk about this?" Amore asked nervously, bumping into the fence enclosing the roof. Glancing down, she saw that it was a very high drop, but there was a cluster of trees just below her. Maybe, just maybe she could use them…

A quick glance at Hibari showed him not even a foot away from her. Forcing herself to do it, Amore hoisted her body over the tiny fence behind her. She was far more worried about what would happen if Hibari caught her instead of the fall that might break even more ribs (at least it was better than being dead.) Her body was weightless as it flew in the air and Amore was sure she escaped…until something gripped her shirt's collar and wrenched her backwards sending her hard against the tiled roof. Amore blinked rapidly to get rid of the dark dots in her vision and she saw Hibari coming her way. She tried to roll away but was blocked when he placed his leg in her path. Crouching over her, Hibari pinned Amore's shoulder down with a tonfa-affectively locking her into place.

"What did you think you were doing, herbivore?" Hibari glared, his metallic eyes burning as he examined the girl under him.

"Umm…Trying to jump from the roof?" Amore sheepishly suggested, fidgeting a little under the grip he had on her.

Noticing her fidgeting, Hibari decided to place his knee onto her stomach to stop her movement. Amore couldn't help but hiss in pain as Hibari added his weight onto her broken rib. She watched as one of Hibari's eyebrows quirked up in questioning, and she looked away from him refusing to give him any satisfaction at seeing her hurt anymore than she was. This only lasted for a minute though because she gave out a soft whimper when Hibari added even more weight onto her ribs, "Would you stop that, please?"

"Hn" Was all Hibari said in reply and she was grateful when he removed his knee from her stomach. Only to be trapped between both of his knees on either side of her, as he affectively straddled her to cooperate to his will. Her face was beat red at the situation she had found herself in as Hibari, ignoring the fact that he was _literally_ on top of her, continued his interrogation, "And why were you trying to jump off the roof?"

"Um-Well-I" Amore stuttered all the while thinking off a way to get out of this embarrassing situation,_ I wish he would stop digging his knees into my sides. It really hurts…And he's practically straddling me! N-No wait he __is__ straddling me! T-This is so embarrassing! _Her mind spun as she breathed in deeply to trying desperately to calm herself down; trying to ignore the fact that Hibari was currently glaring at her with a look that could probably kill (literally), _Ok, Amore calm down…Think of a way to get out... Oh! I know! I'll just use __that__ to get me out!_

"Answer now." Hibari commanded, losing his patience with the stuttering girl.

_Here goes nothing!_ "I'm sorry!" Amore squeaked, before a blinding light suddenly emitted between the two.

Hibari recoiled back, closing his eyes from the light. Taking the chance, Amore used Hibari's legs as leverage and pulled herself from under the Prefect. She quickly stood and ran to the door of the roof, only glancing back at Hibari who was standing up rubbing the rest of the blindness away.

"What did you do?" he growled, a fierce scowl on his face as he glared at the girl who nearly blinded him.

"I'm really sorry but I can't explain! Bye!" she quickly bowed to the angry skylark before dashing down the stairs, escaping Hibari's anger.

* * *

_*sigh*Sometimes I forget how people like to stare at __them__._

Amore had successfully avoided the dangerous Hibari for the remainder of the lunch (which hadn't lasted that long after). When the bell had rung announcing her next class she happily went and got changed for P.E.-one of her favorite classes-and headed out to the field to meet up with Hana, Kyoko, and Yamamoto.

The only problem with Amore's happy time was the fact that people couldn't stop staring at her. All along her arms and legs were deep white scars that ranged from long to small, and even more were hidden from sight underneath her t-shirt. It was something that's not common to see on someone, especially with the amount of scars she had. An average person her age shouldn't have many scars, exactly why she _wasn't_ average.

Ducking her head shyly, Amore quickly headed over to her new friends, feeling the many pairs of eyes on her as she went. A feeling of relief went through her, when she reached the group and no one questioned her about the scars, but she could tell that they were all very curious about it.

"What took you so long Amore-chan?" Yamamoto asked, grinning a carefree smile.

"I was changing in the nurse's office." Amore smiled back, only for her look to turn into a confused one, when Hana's face bunched up in disgust and Kyoko stared at her a little worried, "Umm…Is something wrong?"

"That _guy_ didn't do anything perverted, did he?" Hana asked as she glared at the school, seeming to glare at said person.

"You mean Dr. Shamal?" Amore asked curious getting two invigorating nods from the girl's in reply, "No, I don't think so…Oh, wait. He did try to peek in on me while I was changing."

In response, Hana physically face-palmed herself, while Kyoko almost seemed to sigh in defeat-Yamamoto the only one seeming not to be affected by the news.

"That perverted quack never seems to give up." Hana groaned as she looked up at Amore with sympathetic eyes.

"Huh?" Amore almost squeaked when Hana abruptly placed her hands on Amore shoulders, "Hana-chan…?"

"After…"Hana whispered, then continued louder, "After P.E. me and Kyoko are coming with you to the nurse's office so that perverted doctor doesn't _even_ think about peeking at you when you are changing."

"I don't think that's-" Amore stopped noticing the look of determination in the brunette's eyes, "Okay, I guess that's fine."

"Good." Hana grinned, patting Amore on the shoulders and releasing her. Turning she headed towards the other students, who were gathering around the teacher, "Let's go."

Without another word they all followed Hana to the teacher. The teacher explained to them that today they would split the boys and girls into different sports. The guys moved down the field to play some soccer, while the girls stayed where they were to practice jumping on vault boxes. Yamamoto waved at them before leaving the girls to stand in line to wait for their turn.

_I wonder what happened…_

_Should I ask?_

_That looks so awful…_

_I wonder if they hurt her still…_

Amore couldn't help but hear the whispers around her. She had forgotten how it was like before when she had moved to Canada, when everyone had first seen her scars. It had taken them a while, but soon all her classmates had gotten used to the white scars marring her body. Hopefully her fellow classmates now would get used to it as fast as her last school did.

"Tsuki, you're turn!" the teacher hollered, snapping Amore out of her daze.

"H-hai!" Amore called back getting into position in front of the vaulting box.

"Ready?"

"Hai!"

"Okay…GO!" the teacher blew his whistle and Amore took off at a dash towards the vaulting box. Right before the vault, Amore used the little spring mat to jump up onto the wooden box, using her arms as leverage to push herself back into the air.

Amore felt weightless as she glided in the air. She liked the feel of floating and couldn't help smiling at the thought of floating forever in the air…

"Amore-chan!" Amore heard Kyoko call from below, panic evident in her voice.

Snapping out of her happy daze, Amore looked below her and was shocked to see that she was not a few inches above the ground like she thought, but actually a few _meters _above ground! Instinctively, Amore crossed her arms across her chest and flipped once in the air before landing solidly a few feet away from the vaulting box. Not even a scratch on her, Amore glanced back at her class, and was greeted by the sight of gaping mouths not just from the girls but the guys as well (who had watched the whole event unfold).

Scratching the back of her head, Amore looked at the ground blushing timidly, "Oops…Sorry, about that. Guess I don't know my own strength…Hehe."

There was a silent pause before the whole entire class unexpectedly erupted into cheers and whistles. Amore looked around stunned as her classmates converged on her with questions about her feat, until the teacher broke them up and told them all to go back to what they were doing before he made them all do laps around the school. Regretfully the class dispersed into two sides again, a couple of Amore's classmates giving her a thumb up as they left, and continued what they were doing before.

"That was awesome Amore-chan! I can't believe you went that high!" Yamamoto patted her on the back in congratulations, before he too headed back to the other side of the field.

Amore timidly smiled at Yamamoto before heading and joining Hana and Kyoko.

"That was amazing Amore-chan!" Kyoko cheerfully said looking at Amore with a bright smile, "I was worried when you went into the air so high, but that flip you did was _perfect_!"

"I-It's not that amazing…"Amore murmured embarrassed, "A lot of people in my last school could do it just as easily…"

"Really?"

"Yeah…" No, not everyone where she last lived could do that, but Amore didn't want anyone to know why _she_ could do it. So saying that everyone else could do it was the easiest thing to do.

* * *

The rest of the class went uneventful (no more flying Amore tricks) and the girls headed to the classroom to change. Amore insisted that Kyoko and Hana go change first before they accompanied her to the nurse's office. It was a small room with two small beds, white sheets donning them. White curtains were scrunched against the walls by the metal sliders connecting them to the roof. And leaning back in a chair, a small paper plane in his hand was Dr. Shamal, the school's only "nurse". He was wearing his usual white lab coat, as well as his black collared dress shirt and purple tie that hung loosely around his neck. His short brown hair that waved out, barely moved as the doctor twirled his chair around to face the girl's as they entered the office.

"Kyoko-chan and Hana-chan, it's been a while since I've seen you. How have you lovely ladies been?" Shamal grinned, all smiles for the girls.

"Fine, Dr. Shamal." Kyoko replied with a small smile.

"That's good. So what's brought you to my office? Not feeling well?" Shamal asked with a perverted glint in his brown eyes, "Just take a seat and-"

"Actually we're here with Amore so she can get changed in peace," Hana interrupted grumpily, turning towards Amore who was clutching her school clothes in her arms, "Go and get changed. Kyoko and I will make sure the quack over there won't look." Hana stated her thumb pointing at the doctor.

Nodding Amore went to one of the beds and dumped her clothes onto the bed before turning and closing the white curtain around her, blocking her from the others view.

"Ouch, it hurts my poor soul that you would think of me like that Hana-chan." Shamal cried in mock pain, holding a hand to his chest, "I would never peek in on a girl while she was changing. How could you say that?"

"You did earlier," Hana grumbled in response crossing her arms over her chest, "What would be stopping you now?"

"Hana…That's a little harsh," Kyoko said trying to calm her friend, "I think Dr. Shamal won't peek in on Amore-chan. Is that not right, doctor?"

"Of course, I won't look in on little Amore-chan!" Shamal declared with a grin at the two of them.

Just then the bell rang and Amore popped her head out from behind the white curtain, a worried expression on her face, "You two should go on ahead. I'll be just a minute."

"But-"

"Don't worry I'll be there soon." Amore interrupted Hana's protest, stopping her from arguing any further, "I don't want you two to be late. Go on ahead. Please?"

"…Fine." Hana sighed, resigning. She pointedly glared at Dr. Shamal before she turned to leave with Kyoko, "But if he does anything, tell me right away. Okay?"

"Okay." Amore nodded smiling, "Thanks Hana-chan."

Hana sighed, before closing the door behind her and Kyoko, leaving Amore and Dr. Shamal alone in the little office.

"You better hurry up, or you'll be _really_ late for class." Shamal pointed out, turning his attention back to the little paper plane he had been holding before.

"Oh, you're right!" Amore yelped looking at the clock hanging on the wall. She quickly scurried back behind the curtain and Shamal could hear the rustling of clothes coming from behind the white veil.

Shamal only kept his attention on the plane in front of him for a couple of minutes, before he lifted his eyes and stared at the white curtain between him and Amore, rubbing his stubble chin-which made him look older-in thought. Yes, he had looked in on the girl when she was changing before, but this time he wasn't staring at the white curtain between him and her thinking perverted things (not that he would be thinking that anyways.) No, actually he was thinking about all the scars along the girl's whole body. The curious scars that lined Amore's limbs had been on his mind since earlier when the girl had come in to change…

* * *

"_Umm…Excuse me?"_

_Shamal turned in his seat and immediately grinned happily at the shy girl who was standing in his doorway, "How can I help you? Are feeling sick? Come on in then and-"_

"_No, I'm okay." Amore shook her head back and forth, interrupting the doctor, "Actually I'm here to get changed. The principal __did__ tell you about me right?"_

"_Yes, yes, come on in Amore-chan." Shamal waved, remembering the previous day when the principal had talked to the doctor about the girl coming in to change in the nurse's office because of __certain__ conditions, "Just go behind that white curtain and change."_

"_Thank you." she bowed before heading over and pulling the curtain between her and the doctor._

_A few minutes had passed by before Shamal had given in to his "perverted" side and decided to take a look at the young girl (which he shouldn't be doing). Silently he sneaked over to the curtain, just where it met the other side of the sheet and pulled it back a little, leaving him a little hole to look through-and look through he did. What he didn't expect was the sight he would see before him, and he finally understood why the girl wanted to change alone and why the principal had allowed it. All over her body were large scars, some of which ran from one side of her body to the other. The worst of them were on her abdomen, chest, and back. It was like the scars had been cut neatly all over her; fitting into place like a jigsaw puzzle. Almost as if…_

"_Dr. Shamal…"_

_Snapped from his thoughts, Shamal noticed that the girl had stopped in mid change; her arms were raised above her head; her shirt half on, and her back was turned to him._

"_You know it's rude to peek in on a girl when she's changing, right?" He saw Amore's lip twitch upwards in a half smile, as she commented on the doctor's perverted act. She did not even have to look to make sure that Shamal was there, and just pulled her shirt down over her head, covering her scarred body._

"_Right, sorry about that." Shamal coughed stepping away from the curtain. He went and sat back at his table, rubbing his chin. That was the first time anyone had caught him doing that, and she hadn't even glanced at him as she told him that she knew he was there. It was like she could sense that he had been watching her. But that was impossible. Unless…

* * *

_

"Thank you for letting me get changed here, Dr. Shamal." Amore said happily as she shifted the white curtain back.

"You're welcome Amore-chan." Shamal grinned at her, snapping out of his thoughts, and waved as she left, "See you tomorrow."

"Yep, see you tomorrow!" she smiled cheerfully before closing the door behind her and dashing down the hall.

Shamal stared at the door, his mind lingering on those scars that had been stuck in his head. Something felt familiar about how the scars looked. Something he couldn't quite place.

He twirled around in his seat and his eyes lingered on an object on the top of his table. One of his scalpels lay on top of the wooden desk and he couldn't take his eyes off the small knife as it donned on him. He picked up the small object and twirled it between his fingers as he reviewed what he had seen. He knew why the scars lining Amore's body had seemed so familiar. It was because they were precise clean cuts, like a cut done by a scalpel in an operation. Meaning it was no accident the girl had obtained those scars…every single one of those scars had been deliberate, done by a scalpel by the looks of it.

And Shamal knew right away that the girl was hiding a secret…

A secret she wished to keep hidden from everyone.

Amore rushed back to her classroom, hoping that she didn't miss anything important. Fortunately for her the teacher had not been in the middle of a lesson when she walked in. The teacher reprimanded Amore for being late but went easy on her because it was her first day there.

She headed to her desk beside the window and gave a warm smile to Kyoko as she sat down in her seat. Taking out her books, Amore noticed they were doing math and she almost flinched at the subject. It's not that she was bad at math or anything; it was just that…All of those numbers gave her headaches when she had to look at them for a long time. Sighing, Amore flipped open her book and put her full attention to the teacher hoping that she didn't die of the terrible class that was math.

By the time class was over Amore felt that her head was quite on the verge to exploding. At least she could look forward to her next class which was home economics. She couldn't wait to end the day with cooking, and maybe she could even bring home some of the stuff that she made in that class. Humming to herself she started packing away her books, thinking about all the recipes she could try making.

"You seem really happy." Kyoko commented, smiling at Amore's enthusiasm.

"Yep! I can't wait to cook something really good!" Amore cheered. Bag packed, Amore rushed to the door only barely containing herself as she waited for Kyoko to make her way over, "You said Hana-chan and Yamamoto-kun already headed to the home ec room right?"

Kyoko nodded in response as she came to stand beside her energetic friend, "Hana said she wanted to get there early and Yamamoto said he was going to make some sushi as a welcoming treat for you."

"Really?" Amore perked up at the thought of eating fresh sushi, making her even more excited to get to the next class, "Then what are we waiting for? Let's go!"

Amore practically dragged Kyoko along as they made their way to the home ec room. The room was located on the second floor which was even better since Amore didn't have to worry about Hibari being around. She was pretty much gleaming with excitement when they finally entered the classroom. It was a large well polished room that had enough stoves to cook a whole buffet with. Stainless steel sinks lined the room and everything was neatly placed in cupboards, every utensil in the right place.

Amore skipped over to where Hana and Yamamoto were chatting. In front of Yamamoto was cut fish, some cooked sticky rice, and some seaweed wraps. Currently, Yamamoto was rolling up some of the rice and fish into a piece of seaweed. He grinned when he saw Amore and Kyoko coming over, "Hey guys! Wow, Amore-chan I've never seen someone stare so intensely at sushi before." Yamamoto commented noticing that Amore's eyes were glued onto the sushi that Yamamoto had just wrapped.

"I'm sorry, but…It just looks so good!" Amore cried happily, a bright smile on her face.

"Maa, maa, wait for me to finish them all before you go and devour them." Yamamoto laughed, rolling another sushi together.

"Aww…" Amore pouted. She was hoping she could eat some now, but she guessed she could wait until after class.

"What are you making Hana?" Kyoko asked the brunette who was so absorbed into her work that she jumped when Kyoko questioned her, and Hana accidently burned herself on the pot she was working with, "Hana are you okay?"

"Yeah I'm okay. You just scared me a bit that's all." Hana replied placing her hand under running water to cool the burn.

"What are you cooking anyway Hana-chan?" Amore now curious looked over into the pot that was bubbling a little. Inside was a brown gravy substance and Amore could see some vegetables, pieces of meat, as well as some potato cubes all meshed together, "Is that stew?"

"Stew?" Kyoko asked curiously peeking into the pot.

"Yeah, it is." Hana answered coming over and covering the pot's lid, "And no you can't have any."

"Why not?"

"Because this is for someone else, and I'd rather you didn't eat it all by the time I could give it to them."

"Oh, I get it. It's for that guy you were talking about earlier, isn't?" Amore questioned, watching as Hana's face turned a light pink.

"So what if it is?" Hana indignantly replied looking away from them, "It's none of your business as to who I give it to."

"Well it might not be my business, but I'm pretty sure your stew is burning." Amore noted, watching little puffs of black smoke escape the lid on the pot.

Hana gasped as she rushed over to the stew, turning the temperature down on the stove, and saving it from utter ruin. Hana glared accusingly at Amore, who looked sheepishly at the floor in guilt. Sighing, Hana looked towards Kyoko and commanded, "Make sure that Amore doesn't eat my stew. I'm going to get some salve for this burn. I'll be right back."

Hana marched over to the teacher, explained what happened and left the classroom in a huff. Amore and Kyoko watched her go and looked at each other before smiling. Amore found it was fun to tease Hana about her crush, though she did feel guilty about it at the same time. She never did anything like this before, hanging out with other people her age. It was a relief to finally be able to relax after all she had been through.

Instead of hanging around the big pot of stew (which Kyoko was keeping a close eye on) Amore busied herself with some cooking of her own. Today was apparently cook whatever-you-wanted day since most of the class was dispersed into groups working on whatever they wanted-probably the reason why the teacher said nothing about Yamamoto's sushi and Hana's stew. Amore decided to make herself a nice salad for the way home and went right away to washing vegetables in the sink. She cut a few cucumbers and carrots, added lettuce, and she grabbed spices to make the dressing. By the time she finished she had a small carry home snack, all ready to go. She placed it in the fridge to keep cool, and turned her attention back to her friends.

Yamamoto had finished his sushi. He and Kyoko were now talking to each other as Kyoko stirred Hana's stew on a low temperature to keep it warm. Amore walked over to the two, gaining their attention as she asked, "Yamamoto-kun, can I have a piece of sushi now? Pleassseee?" Her face looked like a little kitten begging for food as she looked at Yamamoto with her pleading round ruby eyes.

Yamamoto just laughed in response, shifting the plate of sushi over to Amore, and she gingerly picked up one of the perfect sushi pieces. Placing it in her mouth, she chewed slowly savoring the taste in her mouth. Her eyes sparkled as she looked at Yamamoto with an expression of joy. Yamamoto couldn't help but laugh at her face, "It's that good?"

"Absolutely!" Amore gulped swallowing the food in her mouth and reaching for another piece, "My Papa could never make sushi this delicious! He always tried but they would always break apart. I had to make the sushi every time he craved a piece."

"What do you mean-" Yamamoto stopped in midsentence as Hana burst through the door; slamming it hard while opening it. She mumbled an apology under her breath as she shut the door, gently this time, and walked over to the others. Yamamoto could see that her cheeks were a light pink and that she was breathing hard; as if she had just run a marathon, "Is something wrong Hana-chan? You looked worn out."

"Nothing's wrong. I'm just a little angry that's all." Hana huffed, walking to her bag sitting on the floor. She opened it up and grabbed a clear plastic container with a matching lid. Coming back over she took the spoon that Kyoko was using to stir the stew with, and she started scooping large chunks of warm stew into the container.

"Angry about what?" Amore questioned popping her fifth piece of sushi in her mouth.

"It's nothing important." Hana brushed off the question ignoring the inquisitive stares from the others.

Amore looked to Yamamoto and Kyoko, and they shrugged their shoulders in response; just as confused as she was. Sighing, Amore decided it would be better to not question Hana about it. Instead she and the others chatted for the remainder of the class, mostly questions asking Amore about what her life was like in Canada. When the bell rung, Amore grabbed her salad from the school fridge and stuffed it into her bag, and walked with the others out of the school.

"So what are you doing tonight, Amore-chan?" Kyoko asked as they reached the school gate.

Yamamoto had left them to go to baseball practice and the girls had been discussing their plans for the evening, like homework and what they would be cooking for dinner tonight, "Me?"

"Yes, you." Kyoko giggled, smiling at Amore with her kind smile, "What are doing tonight?"

Amore pondered for a second, a finger to her chin in contemplation, "Nothing much…I was going to feed Lily, then do some homework and then I was going to look for some job applications."

"Lily?" Kyoko asked at the same time as Hana said, "Job applications?"

"Lily is my cat," Amore explained stopping at the gate. Suddenly she smiled and glanced up at the top of the gate. Kyoko and Hana looked up as well, and were surprised to see an albino cat lounging on the top of the gate, watching them with a bright ruby eye-for the other one was blinded by a faded scar. A cloth, with what looked like a red stain on it, was wrapped around the cat's neck in a bow. The little bell hanging from it chimed gently as the cat jumped down into the waiting arms of Amore. She smiled down at the cat who rubbed its head against her chin, as she turned to the others, "Hana-chan, Kyoko-chan, this is my cat, Lily."

"Aww, she's so cute." Kyoko cried happily, gently rubbing Lily under the chin; a purring sound emitting from the cat in pleasure.

"How come she's all the way here?" Hana asked.

"She wouldn't stay home if I didn't agree to let her come get me after school." Amore explained a smile on her face as she gazed at the happy feline in her arms, "She can be a very stubborn kitty when she wants to be."

Hana and Kyoko looked at Amore both confused by her response, and they were going to ask, when all of a sudden Lily's head perked up and she gave a happy mew before jumping out of Amore's arms and ran into the school.

"Lily!"Amore called, before she ran after the cat, but then stopped to say, "Bye, see you tomorrow!", then continued running, after the two waved bye back. They watched as she disappeared into the school, her faint calls reaching their ears.

* * *

"Lily, get your butt back here!" Amore called just as the feline jumped up the stairs to the next floor.

A few students left around for club activities stuck their heads out of room doors as they watched the girl run after the cat; curious to know what was going on. Amore ignored the stares as she continued to relentlessly follow the cat. Obviously, Lily knew where she was going because not once did the cat waver in her sense of direction. As Amore reached the 3rd floor and saw Lily dashing for the staircase on the other side, she started to get a _really_ bad feeling. But she continued following the cat's trail even as she headed up towards the roof. Amore reached the door that was slightly opened and froze in front of it; afraid of what she might find on the other side.

If Hana had been telling the truth before, after her encounter with _him_-then Amore suspected _who _might likely be on the other side of that door. Taking a deep breath, she reached forward and gripped the door handle; thinking while she slowly opened it, _Lily you traitor, again_.

* * *

_**Haine-of-Winter: We all know who Amore's thinking about, now don't we? I do torture the girl, even though I don't want to. At the moment it's the only way to keep her and Hibari's "relationship" going. This chapter is the longest one I have written, EVER! XD I want to keep them this long so I can satisfy everyone's hunger as much as I can in one chapter (though I can't guarantee this). Maybe, I should make them even longer…But my sis tells me that it would get boring fast if I did that-so no too long chapters. **__** I'm sorry if I'm inaccurate in how sports are done in a Japanese high school. I needed the vault box to make that funny moment with Amore (also tells you just how strong the girl can be.) And soccer was all I could think of for the guys. Though I did think about baseball…But I didn't want to torture the poor guys with Yamamoto and his "fast" throw. Is anyone wondering why Hana came back into the room angry? Well I might make an Omake chapter for the little incident or you all have to wait until later, either way you'll find out why. Look forward to it! **_

_**Reply to reviews:**_

_**Genmyounai Hikaru: Thank you for loving this story so much! X3 I hope I can live up to your expectations. This should be a very original fic (hopefully). I'm saying now that **__**NO**__**, Amore is not a snow guardian. I think that idea has been used too many times (I have nothing against it, though). So you will not be seeing any snow flame. I hope that makes you happy. Continue reading to find out more. I hope you like what you'll see! Xd**_

_**KHR LOVER**__**: Thank you. I thought that my description was lacking. It's really nice of you to say it's marvelous. I will update as much as possible (but I can't guarantee it with the winter break coming up). I hope you continue enjoying this tale. **_

_**Hikari-Suzume**__**: Thank you for loving the story to the EXTREME! XD I will definitely keep going. I have many plans in store for this story. Many encounters with Hibari will definitely keep it going…Xd**_

_**LOPE**__**: Thank you. **__** I tried my best to get the chapter as wonderful as possible. I'm glad you like it.**_

_**You know who it is**__**: Yes, yes, I know who you are. You really need to get an account; you have a lot of good ideas for fics that I'd like to see. XD And I know I got "alone" wrong (fixed just for you.) You just love pointing out my mistakes, don't you? And when you are reading this…Please, don't kill me! Xc**_

_**I'm going to admit it…I'm a "review-hog", so please review when you read. If you want to criticize it's all right with me. I need any help I can get with this fic. I want to satisfy your-the readers-needs. So review and criticize to make this fic better than ever. Thank you! **_


	5. A bite's worth a thousand words

_**Disclaimer: Sadly I don't own it and never will *tears* TT-TT**_

_** I'm really sad! XC I did not get one review yet for the last chapter. Only story alert emails. You don't know how disappointed that makes me feel…TToTT My sister was telling me maybe I should try boycotting the story so people will review but that's bad because I don't want to stop putting it on FFnet. So the story will be continuing. But please review! XC It makes me super happy when you do! So, please…? *big round puppy dog eyes*

* * *

**_

Luck

The one thing that seemed to not be on Amore's side at all, that one word… _luck_. Amore really wished she had it. All through her life the word seemed non-existent. But now… she might actually have met it.

She didn't know if it was a gift from God, or whoever it was that watched over humans, but right then and there she felt that she was lucky. Luck had to be on her side-for once in her life- because in front of her was a sleeping Hibari Kyoya. Yes, a sleeping Hibari. She might have cried given her luck. The Prefect was asleep meaning he didn't know that she was there, and that meant she was safe from any attacks by him.

_Thank you, oh powerful God_, Amore cried inwardly tip-toeing across the roof. All she had to do was grab Lily and leave. Problem was the feline had decided that she wanted Hibari to pet her, so when Amore saw her start to rub her head against the sleeping man's arm Amore dashed over, as quietly as possible, and snatched the cat before she could do it.

Sighing inwardly, Amore glared at the cat accusingly; Lily staring innocently back. Amore couldn't stay mad at the feline long, and just quietly sighed, while tucking the cat into her arms. Glancing down, to make sure that the Prefect was asleep, Amore was surprised by what she saw.

She couldn't deny it, but Hibari was handsome. Especially now, when his guard was down and he wasn't glaring at her. Amore could even say that he looked angelic when he was sleeping. His face was well chiselled, a protruding chin, full lips, and a narrow face. Yep, he was handsome in all in the right places. His hair looked silky to touch as the sun's rays played highlights off the blacks in it. He had a lean body that matched the handsome file. Yes, Amore could not deny that he was handsome, no one could deny that!

_He looks so peaceful when he sleeps. Like a child_... Amore almost giggled at the image, but thought better of it. She didn't want to wake the man because she knew what would happen if she did.

Shivering at the thought, Amore backed away silently, keeping her gaze on Hibari, just in case he suddenly woke up.

"Hi! Hi!"

Amore jumped at the tiny chirping voice and spun around to see that not far from her was the little yellow bird from earlier, "Umm… Hello?"

The bird chirped before flying over and landing on Amore's shoulder. Lily looked up from her spot and mewed happily to the bird who chirped cheerfully back.

Amore smiled at this. It seemed that the two animals were having a conversation; Amore just couldn't help but find it adorable. Tilting her head to get a better look at the bird, Amore asked, "What's your name?"

"Hibird!" It chirped in response.

"Hibird? That's a very cute name." Amore giggled, "It's nice to meet you Hibird. My name is Amore and this is Lily, my cat."

"Amore! Lily!" Hibird copied her in its chirping voice, flapping its wings excitedly.

"Yes, that's right. You're a very smart bird." Amore praised, raising a hand to pet the bird on the head.

Suddenly Hibird chirped and flew into the air; circling Amore while singing,

_Midori tanabiku namimori no_

_Dai naku shou naku nami ga ii~_

"Isn't that the school anthem?" Amore wondered out loud as the bird continued flying around her, its voice singing away;

_Itsumo kawaranu_

_Sukoyaka kenage_

_Aah, tomo ni utaou_

_Namimori chuu~_

_I feel like singing now…_ Amore thought to herself. It was a hobby of hers. Whenever she heard a tune she would hum to it, sometimes even sing to it. She liked to express her feelings through song. She found it was a good way to cope with pain at times. And the school's anthem didn't sound that bad either._ On the next lines, I'll join in_, Amore decided waiting for Hibird. When Hibird started to sing once more, Amore harmonized her voice to the little bird's;

_Asa tsuyu kagayaku namimori no_

_Heihei bonbon name de ii_

_Itsumo kiowanu~_

She sang out clearly as the bird chirped happily at the entrance of her contralto* voice. Hibird landed on her shoulder as they continued to sing together;

_Sukoyaka kenage_

_Hahaa, tomo ni waraou_

_Namimori chuu~_

Suddenly Hibird took flight, Lily joining it as she leapt from Amore's arms. The two headed to the open roof door and both disappeared inside the school before Amore could even react.

"Where are you two going?" Amore called after the animals. Just as she was about to follow after, Amore felt large arms wrap around her and she froze in place.

_Oh no_

Amore fearfully glanced up and was met with Hibari's glare. She had completely forgotten why she had to be quiet, getting distracted by Hibird's entrance. Her fear choked her as she tried to wiggle out of his arms, only to have the opposite effect. Instead, he tightened his embrace; crushing her against him.

"I-I'm s-sorry Hibari-san! I-I didn't m-mean to w-wake you up." Amore stuttered an apology, still trying to escape, "I-I'll j-just g-go and leave-"

"Be quiet." Hibari commanded, bending his head down and placing it onto her shoulder. His warm breath on her neck sent shivers down her spine.

"Umm… Hibari-san?"

"Sing." He murmured while he nuzzled his face into Amore's neck.

"Excuse me?" Amore squeaked not believing what he had just asked her to do.

"I said sing. Or are you questioning my order?" He glared at her from where he was, and was satisfied to see Amore quickly nod her head in obedience, "Good. Now, sing."

Amore breathed in deeply a couple of times and let it out before feeling the fear clogging her throat leave. When that was done she continued where she left off in a clear voice;

_Kimi to boku to de namimori no_

_Atarimae taru nami de nii_

_Itsumo issho ni~_

Amore paused in her singing when she felt Hibari shift his head. She felt his breath on her nape now and she couldn't help but squirm in his grip. Again it was a mistake to do so. He only griped her harder a little painfully so because of her rib.

"Keep singing." He commanded his tone a low growl in his throat.

"R-Right." So Amore continued singing, finishing the anthem;

_Sukoyaka kenage_

_Aah, tomo ni ayumou_

_Namimori chuu~_

"Um, I'm finished." Amore said, hinting that Hibari should let her go now, "Hibari-sa-Eek!" The squeak that emitted from Amore's lips was high pitched when she felt Hibari nibbling her nape. Her face turned a bright red as she renewed her struggle against his grip. She was not going to let him continue this harassment, even if she died trying to escape, _Oh my God! Oh my God! He's biting me! He's biting me! _Her mind kept on replaying the mantra as she continued to struggle against him. But it was like trying to move a wall.

Hibari didn't even seem to notice her struggles as he continued to venture her nape with his lips. Amore yelped in pain when he abruptly bit her hard and groaned inwardly when she felt tiny streams of liquid drip down her neck.

"Hibari-san please stop it!" Amore cried, agitated at the skylark's behaviour.

"Hn," Hibari mumbled as he dipped his tongue out and started to lick the trailing blood. His tongue kept a rhythmic pattern of going back and forth on Amore's nape as he continued his nibbling. Strange enough, Hibari found that the girl's skin tasted like apples. The blood just added to his hunger as he continued his harassment on her, unaware that his grip was loosening as he continued what he was doing.

Amore was aware of this though, and she took the opportunity to do something that she wouldn't dare do unless she was in this situation. Taking a deep breath Amore lashed back at Hibari with her foot, hitting him squarely on the shin. Hibari hissed in pain and his grip loosened completely, letting Amore freely escape the Prefect. Running away from him Amore reached the door just as a tonfa came flying at her head. She ducked and the metal object went flying through the doorway and fell down the stairway; clanging against the stone. Amore whipped around to see that the Prefect didn't look hurt at all while he brandished his other tonfa.

Amore frowned at him, _It was his own fault! He was harassing me! And now that bite's probably going to scar! Wait... Scar? No! _In panic Amore felt the bite wound and saw that her hand was covered in blood. That did it. She couldn't take it. Glaring at the Prefect, tears in the corners of her eyes, she yelled, childishly, "I hate you Hibari-san!" and she stuck her tongue at him before dashing down the stairs not waiting for the Prefect's response.

Taking the stairs two at a time, Amore kept a hand on her bleeding wound while her eyes searched for Lily. She found the cat not far from the entrance of the school, chattering with Hibird.

"Come on, Lily we're going." Amore commanded rushing past the two animals, not even checking to see if the cat followed her.

_Stupid, stupid, Hibari-san! I hate him, hate him, hate-_ her thoughts were interrupted when she abruptly collided with a warm wall.

"Maa, Maa. You shouldn't run in the hall- Huh? Amore-chan?"

Amore looked up surprised to see that she had collided with Yamamoto, who was smiling at her in questioning.

"What are you still doing here? I thought you went home-" Yamamoto stopped talking when he saw the expression on the girl's face, and his carefree smile turned to an expression of worry, "What's wrong? Did something happen?"

"Y-Yamamoto-kun..." Amore hiccupped before her face completely crumbled into tears. She unexpectedly embraced Yamamoto in a crushing hug; burying her face into his chest.

"Maa, Maa, its okay Amore-chan," Yamamoto soothed patting the girl's head, trying to calm her down, "It's okay. There's no need to cry. See?" Yamamoto smiled gently down at the girl as he wiped the tears from her eyes.

He froze though, when his eyes flickered to the wound on her neck. It was only bleeding a little but the mark was already bruising turning a dark purple, "What happened to your neck?" his voice prickled with ice as he gently wiped some of the blood off the wound, "Who did this?"

Amore looked down at the floor and whispered, almost too quiet for Yamamoto to hear, "...Hibari-san..."

"What?"

* * *

"There you go, all better now!" Dr. Shamal cheerfully grinned, placing a large white bandage on Amore's neck.

"Thanks, Dr. Shamal." Amore smiled in gratitude.

Amore had described to Yamamoto what Hibari had did –leaving out all the embarrassing stuff- and he had brought her to Shamal to get her wound looked at.

Yamamoto stood by the door silently, arms crossed over his chest, watching as Shamal finished cleaning up Amore's wound. When Amore stood up Yamamoto grinned at her, and she smiled back, appreciatively. Opening the door, Yamamoto let Amore walk through before turning to Shamal and bowing in gratitude, "Thanks, Shamal. See you tomorrow."

"No need to thank me. I was just doing my job." Shamal replied, waving the thanks off, "Now you two head on home, before you get in trouble with the Prefects."

"Right!" Yamamoto replied like his normal self, but Shamal noticed it. Yamamoto's eyes hardened at the mention of the Prefects. Shamal knew he was hiding something from him, but he decided it would be better not to question the boy. He would have plenty of time to do that later.

"See ya!" Yamamoto closed the door behind him. Amore waited patiently beside the door, and Yamamoto grinned at her, "I'll walk you home, okay?"

Amore happily agreed and the two of them walked from the school. It was getting dark out and the sun was close to setting as the two left the school behind. Amore hummed to herself happily as she skipped on ahead of Yamamoto, who was grinning along with her. He was happy to see that Amore was her normal self once again. What Hibari had done really upset the girl, and Yamamoto couldn't understand why the man would do that. Usually, when someone woke Hibari from a nap they usually ended up in the hospital. Yamamoto would have to talk with Hibari about this, and convince him to leave Amore alone. But for now he wouldn't worry about it. He would enjoy the moment while it lasted.

"Yamamoto-kun! This way!" Amore called, waving from the entrance to a path that turned off the main road. As he walked closer he saw that the path was a dirt one with sakura trees surrounding both sides of the path.

"So this is the route you take?" Yamamoto asked as they trekked down the path.

"Yep! Isn't it wonderful?" she inquired, dreamily. She loved this path it just seemed to brim with life, and Amore admired that.

"Yeah." Yamamoto agreed watching as blossoms drifted down to the ground.

"Hey, Yamamoto-kun?"

"Hmm?" Yamamoto glanced down at the girl beside him, a small smile on his face, "Yeah?"

"Umm... I know this may be a sudden question, but..." she looked at him hesitantly, and Yamamoto encouraged her to continue with a smile, "Umm... Why do you carry a sword around?"

Yamamoto wasn't surprised by the question; actually he had been expecting it. He guessed that she was confused as to why he would be carrying a sword, instead of a baseball bat. Being the baseball fan he was, anyone would expect that, but no. Instead he carried a bamboo blade, strapped securely to his back.

"Hmm... How can I explain?" Yamamoto said, his forehead scrunching in thought, "Let's just say it's a part of my job."

"Job?"

"I guess you could call it that."

"What kind of job-" Amore was interrupted though when something heavy landed on top of her head. Yelping, Amore tumbled to the ground with a thump, "Ow... My head..." opening her eyes, Amore was greeted with the white furred face of Lily, "Lily!" Amore exclaimed, hugging the cat to herself, "Where have you been this whole time? I was worried!" Amore gave the cat a stern look, as it returned her look with an innocent one.

"That's your cat, I presume?" Yamamoto asked leaning over to look down at Amore.

"Yeah," Amore replied, holding the cat close to her, as she stood, "Though she's been a very traitorous kitty lately." Amore stated, giving the cat another stern look.

Yamamoto laughed at this and they continued down the path. At the end he noticed that there was a small rundown apartment complex. It looked shabby and not too well taken care of. Yamamoto was surprised to see Amore head over to the complex.

"It may look rundown on the outside, but it's actually quite nice," Amore commented as if reading his thoughts, "It's not expensive either, that's an added bonus."

"So you live here?" Yamamoto asked as he followed her up the stairs, that looked as if they were about to collapse.

"Yeah, it's just me and Lily." Amore said pulling out a key from her bag and she opened one of the few doors with it.

"Do you want to come in?" she asked turning to face him.

"No, that's alright." Yamamoto replied, denying the invitation, "I have to be getting home before my pop starts to worry. See you tomorrow!" Yamamoto grinned and waved before he jogged down the stairs and back to the main street.

Amore watched him disappear down the street before smiling to herself and shutting the door firmly behind her.

* * *

The next morning Amore stood in front of the same tree she had used before to get into the school. After yesterday she doubted that she would ever use the front gate like a normal student. Sighing, Amore stepped back and jumped up to the branches, grabbing hold of the lowest one. Today was easier to get up and onto the wall; her rib wasn't hurting her as much as it did before. Walking carefully across the wall, Amore made her way to the shed; glancing back at the front gate a few times to make sure no one saw her. Reaching the shed, she jumped down onto the roof and inched close to the edge of it. Looking down to make sure no one was below her, Amore jumped down to the dirt below with little pain.

"Hey, Amore-chan!"

Amore's heart leaped into her throat as she spun around, only to sigh in relief when she saw who it was, "Yamamoto-kun! You almost gave me a heart attack!"

"Oops, sorry about that," Yamamoto replied, scratching the back of his head, a small grin on his face. "Sneaking into the school again?" Yamamoto observed, obviously seeing where she had just come from.

"Unfortunately," Amore sighed as they walked towards the school, "I'll never probably use the front gate. As long as Hibari's around that is." She finished the last statement with her hand rested on her bandaged neck.

"Does it still hurt?"

"No." Amore shook her head, "It just looks worse than it feels."

"That's good." Yamamoto smiled, and Amore smiled back in return.

The two headed for the classroom. Opening the door, they were greeted with a high pitch voice yelling, "Come on, Kyoko-chan! Please tell me!"

Glancing over, Amore saw a petite brunette standing in front of Kyoko's desk, waving her hands expressively. Her hair was done up in a small ponytail, while her brown eyes were vibrant as she tried to pry an answer from Kyoko.

"Okay, okay, Haru-chan. I'll tell you at lunch, okay?" Kyoko said, appeasing the girl who jumped with delight.

"Yamamoto-kun, Amore-chan, good morning." Kyoko greeted, finally noticing the two.

"Amore-chan?" The girl named Haru asked while turning around to face the two. She smiled vibrantly at them as they walked over and she gingerly took hold of Amore's hands, who was a little surprised by the sudden action, and pumped them up and down in excitement, "Hi, you're the new transfer student, right? My name's Miura Haru. It's nice to meet you!"

"My names Tsuki Amore and it's a pleasure to be meeting you too, Haru-chan." Amore returned the smile with one of her own.

"Amore-chan, Haru just knows we're going to get along great!" Haru announced realising Amore's hands, "Just come to Haru if you need any help with anything. Haru's your girl."

"Ok."

"You're looking really energetic today, Haru." Yamamoto said, patting Haru on the head, "And yesterday you were stuck in bed with a cold."

"Haru would never let a cold beat her out of going to school for two days!" Haru announced grinning up at Yamamoto.

"Oh, great she's back." A voice said in a sarcastic tone.

They all turned towards the door where Hana stood. A frown was on her face and Amore noticed that she had light bags under her eyes. Walking over she sat down at her desk, right behind Kyoko.

"That's not very nice, Hana-chan!" Haru puffed, "What's wrong with me being here? I go to this school too!"

"Ok, ok, I'm sorry. Would just be quiet? I was up late last night and now I have a headache." Hana complained, as she took out her books.

"Why were you up so late?"

"None of your business." Hana grumbled.

"Hana, that's not nice." Kyoko chided, scolding like she would with a child.

"Sorry." Hana mumbled, placing her head onto her desk, seeming to take a nap before classes.

Amore giggled at the scene before her. In one day she had already grown attached to the small group of friends. It seemed like there was never a dull moment with these guys. Amore was glad that she could call them her friends. They were kind, kinder than most people she had met through her whole life. And for this she was glad.

"Hey, Amore-chan?"

Amore turned her attention to Kyoko, who was staring at her intently, "Yes?"

"What happened to your neck?"

Amore instinctively reached up to where the large bandage peeked out from under her uniform. She was silent before she replied, "A cat bit me."

"A cat?" Kyoko repeated confused.

"Yeah," Amore forced a smile on her face, saying in a clear tone, "I accidentally annoyed it and it bit me."

"On the neck?"

"I was holding it when it bit me."

"How big was this cat?" Haru asked surprised that a cat could leave such a big wound, just by biting.

"It was very big." Amore replied, mumbling more quietly, "A very, very big cat..."

"It doesn't hurt, does it?" Kyoko asked eyes full of worry.

"No, no. Don't worry it doesn't hurt." Amore reassured her with a smile.

"Okay..."

The bell rang just then and they all sat at their respective seats. The classes seemed to go by in a flash because next thing Amore knew it was time for lunch. She was packing her things into her bag when she noticed Haru dash over to Kyoko's desk. Slamming her hands down hard onto the desk, Haru declared, "Okay, spill. When's Tsuna-san and Gokudera coming back?"

"Tsuna-san? Gokudera?" Amore questioned, looking at Kyoko for clarification.

"Sawada Tsunayoshi, and Hayato Gokudera," Hana mumbled from her desk. Raising her hand she pointed at Kyoko, "Tsuna's, Kyoko's boyfriend," her finger shifted to Haru, "and Gokudera's her boyfriend."

"Hana!" Haru and Kyoko blushed in unison.

"Ok, ok, you don't need to yell." Hana grumbled, shoving her head underneath her arms.

"What are they like?" Amore asked curious to find out more about these boys.

"Tsuna is a small brown spiky haired guy. He's the shy type, though lately that's been changing," Hana described, "He's become more outgoing and straight forward since middle school. He's not Dame Tsuna anymore, that's for sure..."

"Dame Tsuna?"

"Hana!" Kyoko yelled, signaling that Hana should stop talking.

"Fine..." Hana grumbled, before continuing, "Gokudera's the punk looking type. Silver hair and silver eyes, wears a lot of chains. Also he smokes, which Haru," Hana lazily pointed her thumb at the cheerful brunette, "has been trying to get him to quit. To no avail, might I add."

"I'll get him to stop one day! Just watch!" Haru yelled pumping her hand into the air.

"Ok, I'll watch when you are quieter." Hana dismissed the brunette before sinking her head into her arms for much needed rest.

"So where did they go?" Amore asked curious why the two boys went off somewhere in the middle of the school year.

"They went to Italy because of family business." Haru replied sitting down and taking out a homemade bento to eat.

"Family business?"

"Yeah," Kyoko said explaining further, as she took out her own lunch, "Tsuna and Gokudera have some family in Italy, so they went together. I got a letter saying that they would be coming back tomorrow." Kyoko smiled at Haru after saying this and Haru looked delighted by the news.

"That's cool..." Amore said in admiration, "I lived in Italy for a couple of years. It's a beautiful city." Amore sighed closing her eyes at the memories, "I wish I was there with Papa, right now..."

"Papa?"

"Papa Niccholei. He was my Uncle who lived in Italy." Amore explained snapping out of her memories.

"'Was'?" Haru asked not understanding why Amore would talk about her Uncle in past tense. Unless...

"Papa died when I was younger." Amore whispered in a fragile voice as she gazed out the window; not able to look at the other girls.

The others were silent as they were helpless to help ease Amore's pain. Briefly shaking her head, Amore told them with a small smile, "That was a long time ago. Let's eat! No point in getting depressed when we have good food to fill our stomachs." Amore grabbed her lunch and happily dug in; filling the awkward silence.

Haru and Kyoko smiled at Amore's sudden mode change. As long as she was happy, they were happy. They finished their lunches in peace as the next bell rang, announcing classes. Hana was woken from her nap and Amore went to change in the nurse's office. She hummed to herself as she skipped along the way. Today was turning out to be a fine; she hadn't met up with Hibari once. Her luck was changing for the good. She reached the nurse's office and opened the door with enthusiasm, only to freeze at what she saw.

Standing there conversing with Shamal was Amore's worse nightmare -Hibari Kyoya. Just when her future was looking bright, just when everything seemed to be going her way, _he_ just had to be there to ruin it.

"Amore-chan?" Shamal asked. They had turned their attentions to the door when they heard it being opened. Shamal was confused as to why the girl was just standing frozen in the doorway, "Aren't you going to change? You'll be late for class if you don't."

_Just ignore him. Just ignore him, Amore._ "R-Right." Amore walked into the office and closed the door behind her. She kept her eyes straight as she walked right past Hibari, almost close enough to touch him. She noticed that his glaze flickered to her neck and she had to resist the urge to cover it with her hand. She kept the urge down until she had reached where the beds were and closed the white curtain around her.

Relieved to be behind the curtain and out of Hibari's gaze, Amore started to freely change and listened in as Shamal talked to Hibari about something.

"So Sasagawa gave you this to give to me?" Amore heard Shamal ask incredulously.

_He must be talking about Ryohei-san_, Amore thought noting that he called Kyoko, 'Kyoko-chan', but Ryohei 'Sasagawa'.

"Yes." Amore noticed that the Prefect answered the question in a cold tone, almost as if he was forcing himself to admit that he had done as such.

"Wow," Shamal whistled, in astonishment, "How did he get _you_ to do that?"

Immediately a large crash was heard and Amore could tell that Hibari had broken something, "That is none of your business, herbivore." She heard Hibari growl from the other side and she heard him march from the room; slamming the door behind him.

Peeking her head out she saw the extent of what Hibari had done. Shamal's desk lay in shambles from an impaling object; splintering it right down the middle. Shamal himself was backed away from the desk, casual leaning in his chair.

"Dr. Shamal? Are you alright?" Amore asked concerned for the older man's safety.

"Me?" Shamal pointed to him, and smiled happily at Amore, "No need to worry about me. I'm just fine. You're sweet for worrying, though."

"Ok, if you say so..." Amore hesitantly retreated behind the curtain to finish changing. After she stepped from behind she saw Dr. Shamal with a broom and pan cleaning the splinters off the floor, "Do you need some help?" she asked bending down to pick up some of the splinters.

"Sure, it's not every day a cutie like you agrees to help me out." Shamal exclaimed happily. Handing the broom to Amore he pointed to the splinters lying around, "Brush the smaller pieces into the dust pan while I pick up the larger ones, 'kay?"

"Okay." Amore got to work and finished in no time. Most of the desk had stayed together, even with how demolished the poor thing was. Looking at the time Amore hurried to the door, stopping only to look back at the doctor, "See you later Dr. Shamal."

"Amore-chan?" Shamal inquired, stopping the girl before she could leave.

"Yes?"

"Did something happen between you and Hibari?"

Amore gaped at the doctor, "How did-?"

"The way Hibari was gazing at your wound." Shamal stated pointing to the bandage on her neck, "He was smirking when you walked by him."

"I-I-" Amore tried to explain, but only stuttered out meaningless words.

"You don't have to tell me, if you don't want to." Dr. Shamal said as he walked over to Amore and turned her around facing her toward the hallway, "Just remember I'm here if you need to talk. I always enjoy a good chat with a pretty young girl like you." Shamal winked before gently pushing her into the hallway, "You better be going now; you're already late. Explain to the teacher that you were helping me out that should get you out of trouble."

"...Thank you, Dr. Shamal." Amore whispered a faint smile gracing her lips before she jogged down the hallway and headed outside.

* * *

Amore eventually made it for P.E. but not without being lectured by the teacher for tardiness, only being able to tell him that she was helping Shamal after his lecture; leaving the whole excuse useless in the end. Amore had joined the sport they were doing, but soon left with a bleeding Hana. Hana had been falling asleep while standing and unfortunately had been hit in the face with a ball. Since Amore was the closest the teacher had sent her with Hana to get treated.

It was more of a workout than a treatment. Hana kept on having to push Shamal away because his hands just happened to _wander_ into places where the doctor shouldn't be touching. After Hana finally settled down, Shamal ordered her to get some rest there, and she had to reluctantly agree. Her eyes were fluttering shut when Amore had left her, after dropping off Hana's things. Leaving the nurse's office Amore walked to the stairs and was about to climb them when she heard something very familiar;

"I'll jump these stairs to the EXTREME!"

Quickly stepping back, Amore barely escaped being crushed by a jumping Ryohei; avoiding another incident like last time.

"Hello, Ryohei-san." Amore cheerfully smiled, waving as the man turned her way.

"Amore, I didn't even see you there." Ryohei said, surprised to see her.

_I noticed_, Amore thought before asking, "How've you been Ryohei-san?"

"Fine." Ryohei replied. He looked behind Amore as if searching for something before he inquired, "Aren't you supposed to be in class?"

"Yes, I'm heading there right now. I was just giving Hana her things." Amore explained.

"Hana? What's wrong with her?"

"She got hurt in P.E. Dr. Shamal told her to rest since she got hurt because she was falling asleep while standing."

"Really?"

"Yeah," Amore nodded, gazing back at the nurse's office with worry, "I just don't know why she was so tired..." Amore looked back at Ryohei who seemed to be lost in his own thoughts, "Ryohei-san?"

"Yeah?" he asked, none too quietly either.

"What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be in class as well?"

"Oh, I was actually heading to the nurse's office." Ryohei answered, pointing to the room, "I've got to talk to Shamal about something. Speaking of which, I have to go now. I'll talk to you later."

He walked past her and Amore watched as Ryohei headed to the office and opened the door, saying, "Hey, Shamal! Did you get that package?"

"Be quiet!" Amore heard Hana shout before she saw a pillow fly into the hall, almost hitting Ryohei in the face, "Some people are trying to sleep here!"

"Sorry about that." Ryohei laughed before he disappeared into the nurse's office shutting the door behind him.

* * *

The rest of the day was uneventful as the rest of the classes flashed by. Though math seemed to still make Amore's head feel like it was going to explode. Leaving her friends at the path to her house, Amore hummed as she walked, her eyes glued to the scenery around her. She loved how the blossoms danced in the wind, landing softly on the soil below. Lily walked beside her jumping at a blossom here and there. Her mind was so preoccupied that she didn't see the person running down the path until they collided with one another.

"Ow!" Amore cried as she landed painfully on her butt.

"Ouchy... Oh, no! I'm sorry are you okay?"

Amore looked up and hers locked with large brown eyes. She had collided with a boy her age, who stood above her as he looked down at her.

"Miss, are you okay?" the boy repeated once again.

Of course Amore wasn't hurt, but she just couldn't stop staring at the boy. He fit the exact description Hana had given her earlier; spiky brown eyes, and he gave off the shy type kind of feel. Without thinking about it Amore asked;

"Are you Sawada Tsunayoshi?"

"Yes." Tsuna blinked in confusion by the sudden question, "But how did you know?"

"Oh my gosh, I'm sorry!" Amore quickly rose to her feet and bowed, "My name's Tsuki Amore! I'm a new transfer student. Kyoko told me about you." Amore grabbed Tsuna's hands enthusiastically, "It's a pleasure to be meeting you!"

"Um...It's nice to meet you too." Tsuna replied giving Amore a small smile.

"Juudaime!"

The two turned and saw another boy running down the path towards them. His silver hair danced with highlights of shade as he ran over to where they were, silver eyes flashing as they landed on Amore. As he neared Amore saw that he wore a lot of jewellery for a guy. He had some bracelets on his wrist as well as some chains hanging around his neck. Every one of his fingers had a ring on it, and Amore could tell right away that this guy had to be Gokudera Hayato.

"Juudaime! Why did you run off like that?" Gokudera asked worry etched in his eyes.

"Sorry, Gokudera. I just couldn't wait to get back." Tsuna apologized scratching the back of his head while looking down at the ground.

"Hello!" Amore abruptly interrupted, gaining the attention of the two guys, "May I presume you to be Gokudera Hayato?"

"What's it to you?" Gokudera glared, sending Amore threatening vibes.

"It's nice to meet you Gokudera-kun!" Amore smiled taking his hands into her own like she did with Tsuna, "My name's Tsuki Amore. I'm a new transfer student at Namimori."

"Umm...What?" Gokudera said a little dumfounded by how Amore didn't even notice Gokudera's glare.

"Kyoko and Haru-chan told me you two were in Italy," Amore continued releasing Gokudera's hands, "But aren't you supposed to be coming back tomorrow? Kyoko said you would be."

"We finished earlier than expected," Tsuna explained, "I was just heading over to the school to see if I could catch Kyoko, but I guess not..."

"You should just go to her house than." Amore said, trying to be helpful to Tsuna, "She'd probably be really happy to see you if you went and said hi now, instead of waiting for tomorrow."

"Really?" Tsuna perked at the idea and when Amore nodded in confirmation, he smiled at her, "I'll do just that! Thanks Amore-chan!" He thanked her and started down the path in new vigour.

"Juudaime! Wait up!" Gokudera called before rushing after the brown haired boy.

Amore watched them leave with a smile on her face. She turned back down the path and started walking back home once again.

_Tsuna-kun's really cute. Kyoko is really lucky to be going out with him! I'm glad I could help him. Hana definitely hit it right when she described Gokudera-kun as a punk. But what was with all that "Juudaime" stuff? Is Tsuna the "Tenth" of something_, Amore shook her head at the thought. Thinking about it too much would just get her confused. She'd see them tomorrow, she could just ask then.

Skipping along, Amore began to hum once more as she thought of the next day. New friends awaited her tomorrow and she couldn't wait for a brand new day to start.

* * *

_**Haine-of-Winter: And viola! This chapter is now complete! Xd The trouble I had to go through for this chapter was horrendous. Right now I am currently typing this at 4 in the morning and mother-or-dear is nearly ready to kill me. So I'll make this short and simple. Happy Holidays to everyone! Please review and comment! Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to bed.*yawn***_

_***Contralto-lowest singing voice of a woman. Apparently Judy Garland (Dorothy, Wizard of Oz) had this same singing range.**_


	6. Nightmare Fever

_**Disclaimer: I don't own KHR**_

_** I'M SO SOOOORRRRY!XC I haven't updated in forever and I apologize deeply. It's been really hectic for me. . Every time I tried to work on this I would get an assignment from school. It just kept happening and happening. Even in March Break I only got to update two of my fanfics (which is really sad). So once again I am sorry for the late update and I hope that you all can forgive me for my unworthiness. *bow***_

* * *

_Red_

_Everything was died in red._

_Screams. Agony. Pain. Tears. Pleading…_

_A cut here. A scar there. Skin pulled back, only to be sewed back together again. Organs lying across the table, exposed for the whole world to see. Eyes punctured with needles…._

_More screams. More pain._

_The torture never ending. The pain never stopping…_

_Were those her screams? Her pain?_

_She couldn't tell anymore. The pain was the only thing that accompanied her in the nightmare…_

_That world of red… That world of…_

_BLOOD_

Amore awoke with a gasp, her body drenched in a cold sweat. She wrapped her arms around herself to keep her trembling body still.

_Just a dream. It was just a dream. Calm down…_

Her body refused to listen to her and the shivers continued to play from her head to her toes. She hadn't had one of _those_ dreams in a while. That part of her life would forever haunt her. Not even many years later could change that fact.

Just thinking about it intensified the shivers her body was going through. She was practically vibrating as she turned her gaze to the alarm on her bedside table. The alarm clock showed a digital 7:30 on the screen.

Cursing under her breath, Amore ran to her dresser to grab her uniform to get changed, forgetting all about the nightmare. She had forgotten to set her alarm yesterday and she only had 20 minutes to get ready for school. She finished wiggling into her skirt and chanced a glance at the clock. 7:35. Only 10 minutes left to get to school.

Rushing into the little bathroom she quickly brushed her hair and teeth. Washing her face with cool water and applying little makeup, she rushed out of the room to the front door. She was struggling to put her shoes on when Lily emerged from her bedroom; still drowsy from sleep.

"Morning Li-" Amore's lips halted when her vision suddenly blurred and she tipped forward. Her hand shot out and she caught herself shakily before her face could implant into the floor.

_Well, that was weird_... Amore thought, cautiously lifting herself up. When she didn't feel anymore dizzy spells were going to come, she opened the door and left the apartment. She yelled a goodbye over her shoulder and told Lily 'to be a good kitty while she was gone' before she jogged down the apartment stairs to the path leading to the school.

She messily tried to put her hair into her normal braids but grew frustrated with the effort as she couldn't concentrate while jogging. For some strange reason she felt really hot even though it was mid-April. Huffing and puffing she stopped halfway down the path to rest for a bit. The air felt like it was alive with heat, _Why is it so hot? Just yesterday it was nice and cool. How come now…_

Amore froze as realization dawned on her. She knew what was happening. It hadn't occurred to her earlier, since her mind had been so preoccupied with getting to school on time, that she never thought that it was _that_ time of the month. Having a nightmare from long ago, and the blistering heat she felt were all signs, signs that she had ignored.

She needed to get home, _now_.

Turning back towards her home, Amore was only able to take a couple steps before a bigger dizzy spell hit her, blocking her vision with pinpricks of darkness. Her body collapsed to the ground with a _thud_ and a _puff_ of dirt. Her mind was reeling, her vision spinning in circles as she reached into her bag trying to get her phone out.

_I have to call her… Before it's too late_, Amore thought, her hand scrambling through her bag. She cried in relief as her hand clutched a cool oval object. She pulled out a metallic silver phone from within her bag. The little homemade charm jingled as she placed the phone near her face; breathing becoming more difficult as she focused on the little charm. It was a piece of silver wool in the shape of a flame, the bell within jingling. Amore smiled at the small charm until her vision reeled again and she was reminded of why she had the phone out in the first place. With one shaky hand, her other arm caught under her, Amore flipped open the phone and cried out in shock when the phone flew from her hand. Not having enough of a grip to keep the phone within her grasp, it had been sent skittering away across the dirt.

_No!_ She cried out in her mind as she struggled to grab the phone. Her efforts were to no avail; her body seemed to weigh her down like a brick. _Please! Just a little farther!_ She pleaded her hand inching forward by a tiny bit. Abruptly, black spots appeared in her vision as her body shuddered in pain. Her hand flinched back at the throbbing pain. Soon, her arm went limp as her limbs became numb and her mind began to darken as the fever overwhelmed her senses.

Barely was she aware of a soft object rubbing insistently against her face; cries emitting from the object. Her last thoughts were of how the cry seemed so familiar, as her mind drifted off to unconsciousness.

* * *

Hibari scowled to himself as he walked down the dirt path; his school jacket blowing freely on his shoulders. He had left later that morning because that stupid old man had thought it would be "fun" to annoy him that particular morning. Not only was the skylark pissed, but he was going to be late. Hibari Kyoya had _never_ been late for school. _Never._

Growling under his breath, Hibari was about to pick up his pace when he abruptly stopped. For a minute there, he thought he had heard a strange noise. Cocking his head, Hibari listened…

_Meow_

There it was a faint meowing coming from ahead of him. Following the cries, he saw a white feline rubbing its cheek against a girl's body. He recognized the feline as the girl's pet, the one he had bitten, and that the owner was lying on the ground.

The feline noticed him and it let out a meow of panic, its eyes staring into his, pleading for help. Walking over to the girl, he noticed that her body trembled as if it was cold, even though it wasn't. Reaching down, his hand flinched from the heat radiating off her. Her breath came out in giant puffs as she curled in on herself, a whimper emitting from her lips.

Hibari stared at the girl. The cat beside him continued to meow in concern as it repeatedly rubbed its head against its master's. Hibari's eyes flickered over to something that caught his gaze. Not too far from the girl was a silver phone that he presumed to be hers. Picking it up he looked at the open screen and saw that there was only one number listed on her contacts: _Bella_.

Ignoring the little mobile, Hibari stuffed it into his pocket and crouched down beside the girl. Rolling her onto her back, he reached under her and lifted her up into his arms. Her petite frame was surprisingly light as she shivered against him. Her loose silver hair fell in waves over his arms as he adjusted his grip on her.

He gazed down at the cat beside him, who was now rubbing its head against his leg affectionately, "Come on." He told the cat before he turned around and trekked back down the path.

* * *

_Again, she was trapped, trapped again within the world of red._

_But... It wasn't her blood this time. No... It was..._

"_Papa!"_

_Amore cried out trying to help the man kneeling on the ground in front of her- only to be restrained by chains wrapped around her arms, "Papa!"_

_The man in front of her was covered in blood, his whole body engulfed with the red liquid. He was not chained like she was, but he could not move just the same. His blond hair, sickeningly streaked with blood, moved away from his blue eyes as he looked up at her from where he was, "Amore..." his voice was but just a whisper as he called her name, his hand outstretched towards her._

"_Aww! What a sweet moment! It's just so sad that I have to end it." A voice piped up in a sarcastic sad tone. _

_A man in a white suit stood behind Niccholei. The man's thin layered brown hair obscured one of his shining silver eyes as he gazed down at the kneeling man before him. Amore froze when he reached down and grabbed a handful of Niccholei's hair and pulled his head back revealing his neck. A small sword was placed right at his throat - a small trickle of blood dripping down Niccholei's neck._

"_Niccholei," the man pouted, his voice almost sounding regretful, "you could have avoided all this. If you only had given me my toy, I would have left you alive."_

"_Amore is not a toy." Niccholei, glared at the man, "I would never hand her over to you."_

"_Amore?" The man asked confused, "Oh, I get it! So that's your new name, my little pet." The man smiled at Amore, sending a shiver of despair down her back, as he realized the connection between her and the name. Turning his attention back to Niccholei, he purred near his ear, "Well, I don't care what her name is. She's still my toy and I'm taking her back."_

"_No!" Niccholei shouted, grabbing the knife at his neck. He hissed as his fingers were cut but kept the pressure as he wrenched the knife from the man's hands. He turned swiftly and placed his hands on the man's chest, white flames erupting from the place he touched._

_The man calmly retaliated, kicking Niccholei in the stomach and knocking him onto his back on the floor. Niccholei coughed violently, blood trickling from his mouth as he tried to get up only to cry out in pain when the other man forced him back down with his foot._

_The man casually shrugged out of the burning suit, throwing it to the ground as the flames devoured the rest of the material and disappeared, "Well, that certainly was surprising. I didn't think you had enough power to produce flames. I should have been more careful."_

"_B-Bastard!" Niccholei spat, more blood escaping his lips._

"_That's not very nice, dear Niccholei," the man remarked as he ground his foot into Niccholei's wound, a shout emitting from the wounded man's lips, "Now, I'll ask only once more. Will you give me my toy?"_

"NEVER."_ Niccholei whispered his voice as cold as a blade._

"_Fine, then." The man smirked. Reaching into his suit the man produced a gauntlet. There was a grip where the he placed his hand in. Over it, covering the back of his hand was a pointed-armour-weapon. He held the point down towards Niccholei, and it elongated to make a long kind of claw that just touched Niccholei's neck._

_The smirk was gone from the man's face as he lifted his arm back, his voice neutral indifference, "Good-bye, dear Niccholei, 'The Shining Star.'"_

"NO_!" Amore cried out, just as the man's weapon made contact with Niccholei's chest, plunging deeply with a sickening _thump_._

_Amore could only stare, a loud thumping filling her senses. Time seemed to slow as she watched Niccholei turn his gaze toward her. Barely, did she register that he had called her name. Her ruby eyes locked with his blue eyes as the life slowly slipped away from them. Until they were completely dull, the once shining blue, now a hollow gray, "Pa-Papa..."_

_NO!_

"Miss wake up!"

Amore's eyes shot open as she gasped, heat smothering her. She struggled to sit up but was restrained by a hand on her shoulder, "It's okay Miss, it was just a bad dream. That's all." A warm voice cooed reassuringly.

Amore concentrated on breathing and after a few deep breaths regained her composure. She let herself relax against the futon, only noticing at that moment that she was in one. She closed her eyes and realized that a cold washcloth was being taken from her forehead.

"Better now?" she heard the voice say.

Slowly opening her eyes Amore saw an elderly gentleman was kneeling beside her. A bucket of water was beside him and she watched him place the washcloth into the bucket. She saw that he had black hair with gray streaks in it, tied at the back of his nape making a small ponytail. He smiled down at her in genuine concern as he brushed some of her sweat damped hair from her face, "Good evening."

"Wher-?" she tried to question but her dry throat croaked on the word.

"Do you want some water?"

All she could do was nod in reply and let her head rest back onto the pillow as the man stood and left the room. She watched him leave and was surprised that, even for someone his age, he walked without any difficulty.

She let her eyes travel around the room. It seemed she was in an old style Japanese house, given that the structure of the building was made of wood. Her eyes scanned the many ancient scrolls on the walls depicting scenes with demons or Japanese gods in their glory or amidst battles of war. Amore glimpsed a pond in the yard through the door the man had left through. She could hear the soft _click-clack _as the cut bamboo deposited water into the lower pond from the little one above. Other than that, all she could see were a few trees and shrubs adorning the yard.

Her searching gaze was blocked by a pair of legs and she let her eyes roam upward to meet the smiling man. In his hand was a glass of water and he walked over and kneeled down beside her once again. When she went to get up the man placed a gentle hand on her shoulder and shook his head, "Easy now. Don't want you to get sick do we?" This time he helped Amore into a sitting position, slowly, so she wouldn't get sick. Keeping an arm around her shoulders he lifted the glass to her lips and she swallowed the cold liquid greedily. Gently helping her to lie down again he smiled warmly, "Better now?"

"Yes." Amore answered in a soft voice, "Thank you, umm..."

"Hikitorite Shugorei. Just Shugorei is fine," the man answered a wise smile lightning his eyes, "And your name is Tsuki Amore, right?"

"How did you-?" Amore gasped and covered her mouth in shock.

"I looked at your student ID." Shugorei jutted his chin to her bag that rested against a small round table not far from her, "I called your home, but no one picked up." his gray knowing gaze again rested on her and he continued, "Where are your parents?"

"I live alone." Amore whispered averting her gaze from the man.

"Any guardians?" Shugorei asked in a knowingly manner.

"One." Amore admitted staring at the pond outside.

"Do you have their phone number?"

"Yes, but..."

"But?"

"She won't answer unless you're on her contact list." she sighed exasperated, "Unfortunately; I think I might have lost my phone."

"You think you lost it?" he repeated his eyebrow rose in curiosity.

With another sigh Amore recounted to Shugorei how she had fallen onto the path, that she had taken her phone out trying to call her guardian, only to have the phone slip out of her grip, "...I guess you didn't happen to see it when you found me did you?"

"I wouldn't know. I'm not the one who found you." Shugorei stated shrugging his shoulders.

"Then who...?"

"Kyo-kun is the one who found you."

"Kyo-kun?" Amore asked titling her head to the side.

"He's my ward," he answered with a proud smile.

"Oh." Was all Amore could reply watching as the old man stood up and stretched his arms over his head languidly.

"Speaking of which..." Shugorei paused inclining his head to the side, listening for something, "I believe that's him now."

Amore listened as well, until she heard the unmistakable _thump_ of feet walking on wood. Amid the sounds of the footsteps, that were approaching, she heard the tiniest jingle of a bell. A bell that sounded familiar...

With quick realization, Amore jerked into a sitting position ignoring the wave of sickness the sudden movement brought.

"Whoa! You shouldn't be getting up so suddenly!" Shugorei protested, hurrying to kneel beside her again.

"I'm okay." she replied distractedly, her eyes fixed on the door. _It can't be. Could it?_ Her heart jumped into her throat when she saw a familiar white feline walk into the doorway, "Lily!" Amore couldn't help but cry out to see her dear precious cat.

Mewing in reply, the cat made its way quickly to her master and snuggled into Amore's arms. Rubbing her head against her cat, Amore was just so happy to see her kitty that she didn't even notice that Shugorei had gotten up and was conversing to someone else until she had looked up to question how her cat had got there, "How did-"

Her lips froze when two familiar steely metallic eyes met hers. She could only stare at the man before her, "H-Hibari-san?"

"Hmm? You two already know each other?" Shugorei questioned looking between the two.

"Hn." Hibari grunted his gaze trapping Amore as his lips tugged up into a smirk, "Finally awake, herbivore?"

"Yes..." Amore mumbled dropping her gaze and playing anxiously with Lily's fur.

"Kyo-kun stop scaring the poor girl," Shugorei admonished, clapping the younger man on the back, "she's already went through enough today as it is."

Hibari grunted in response and leaned against the door frame casually, his eyes now on the older man, "So?"

"So what?"

Hibari nodded his head towards Amore in response.

"She says she lives alone and that her only guardian will only answer her phone to someone on her contact list." Shugorei explained, chuckling a little, "Ironic that she happened to lose her phone when she fainted."

Without a word Hibari reached into his pant pocket. Something jingled as he pulled out a small silver flip phone and presented it to the older man.

"My phone!" Amore gasped in shock recognizing the small flame keychain dangling from the phone.

"You little devil, Kyo-kun," he grinned taking the phone from Hibari's hands, "How come you didn't give me this earlier? It could have helped you know." Smiling down at Amore, Shugorei flipped open the phone and pressed a few buttons until both his eyebrows rose in surprise, "Hmm? There's only one person contact on your list?"

"Yes," Amore said putting her arm out, palm faced upward, "If I could please have my phone. I'll-"

Shugorei tsked and waggled his forefinger in a 'no-no' sign. Seeing Amore's perplexed face, he sighed and kneeled once again beside Amore, clasping a hand on her shoulder, "You need to rest more. Your fever is already rising again, I can feel it."

"But-"

But he cut her off with a smile, "I'll talk to your guardian for you. Just relax." he prodded her gently back into a lying position and wringed out the washcloth and placed it back onto her forehead, "Here, I'll even help you with a little trick of mine."

Amore could only stare in wonder as Shugorei magically produce a thin black needle from his sleeve, "An acupuncture needle?"

"Yes. I dabble with acupuncture in a way." He gripped the bulkier end of the needle and lightly rested it against the space between her neck and shoulder, "This will help your body relax. You'll be sleeping in no time."

"Umm..." Amore said nervously casting her eyes to Hibari who just gazed at them with indifference.

"It won't hurt one bit." Shugorei smiled reassuringly.

"Okay." Amore sighed, letting herself relax as the needle pierced her skin. Almost immediately, a wave of calmness washed over her and her hands stilled their petting of Lily as she drifted between consciousness and sleep. She let her eyes rest on Hibari and her mouth slowly moved as she mumbled, "Thank you..."

She never heard his reply because by then she was sleeping deeply. No dreams haunting her.

* * *

A red convertible raced down the streets of Namimori. Other drivers cursed as the car made illegal passing's and sped way over the speed limit. The woman driving ignored all the profanities and middle fingers as she rounded a corner so fast that the car leaned precariously.

_Stupid, stupid girl! If only she had called me earlier... None of this would be happening! _The woman cursed as she glanced at the quick sketch of a map she had drawn.

She glanced further ahead down the road and saw the large tori gate that she knew to be her stop. The car let out a long _screech_ as the car braked suddenly, the wheels screaming in protest. The woman whipped the keys before the car had fully stopped and had already leapt from the car a small briefcase in hand. Swiftly, she turned on her red heels and proceeded up the stairs running a hand through her wavy crimson hair, trying to undo what the wind had done. Up the stairs she went, heart thudding as she reached the top and was greeted with the site of an old rundown temple. An elderly man leaned against an open doorway into the temple. His eyes locked onto the woman as she made her way across the little courtyard and he waved in greeting.

"Where is she?" the woman demanded as she reached where he was.

The man smiled once again and waved her to follow him as he entered the doorway into a large wooden room. A few wall scrolls hung on the walls. A small table was placed on the other side of the room. A wooden bowl, candles, and a vase - nothing in it at the moment - were on the table, "I have her sleeping in a room this way." The elderly man stated leading the woman through another door off to the side, "She's resting in my room... So your name's Bella?"

"Yes. And you must be Shugorei." Bella answered, regarding the man with a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes, "I was caught off guard when I heard a man's voice on the line and not Amore's."

"Yes, well, couldn't exactly let a sick girl endure the drilling you gave." Shugorei laughed as he turned amused eyes toward Bella, "I still think my ears are ringing."

"Well-I'm sorry about that." Bella coughed into her hand avoiding his gaze. Her embarrassment quickly passed as she turned back to him crimson eyes burning with concern, "How is she?"

"Last I checked she was sleeping peacefully. However, her fever has risen, so much that I burned myself when I went to place a cool cloth on her head." Shugorei explained lifting his hand to show the faint red marks on his fingers and palm, "Had to get Kyo-kun to change the clothes after that."

"How long has it been since you called me?"

"Maybe ten minutes tops." Shugorei shrugged.

_That's _good, Bella thought running a hand through her hair absently, "Are we there yet?"

"Right here." Shugorei announced stopping in front of a closed door. The bamboo _click-clacked_ as Shugorei stared at Bella with a confused look, "I don't really understand what is going on but..." His confusion turned to concern as he kept on staring, "All I hope is that you can heal her. It's unnatural what is happening to her body. I could tell right away, when none of my own healing skills didn't relieve any of the fever's hold."

"Healing skills?" Bella whispered heart thudding with fear, _Oh, god. Please say he didn't do anything to make it worse_.

"Acupuncture." Shugorei produced a black needle from his sleeve.

Bella let out the breath she didn't realize she was holding. If he had given Amore any modern medicine it would have made the fever worst, advancing the illness's progression. But any natural healing skills, acupuncture included, helped – to an extent, "That probably helped a little." Bella admitted, looking at the closed door, "The faster we get this done, the faster I can get her all healed up."

"All right." He nodded and slid the door back, ushering Bella through.

Bella cursed under her breath at her first glimpse of Amore. Amore's chest rose and fell with every quick shallow intake of breath. Her face gleamed with sweat, plastering her hair to her forehead. Shudders racked through her body as she clenched the thin blanket covering her.

Bella found herself running over to where Amore lay. She kneeled beside her placed the briefcase down, reached forward and rolled up Amore's sleeve just past her elbow, looking for a vain. When she found one, she opened her briefcase and grabbed an alcohol strip. Ripping it open with her teeth she swiped at the spot on Amore's elbow. Once finished, she grabbed a needle from the case. Translucent liquid was already inside and she gave the needle a quick shake. After the air bubbles dissipated she placed the needle tip at the crevice of Amore's elbow and with one quick fluid motion plunged the needle into Amore's arm. Pressing down on the plunger she injected all the fluid into the girl's body. Taking the needle out she kept one hand on her arm, and grabbed a cotton swab from the case and cleaned up the little bit of blood bubbling there.

A few minutes later, signs of improvement shone through as Amore's breathing slowed and her hands unclenched the sheets. Heat still radiated off her in high degrees, but Bella knew that the fever wasn't life threatening in this stage. Amore's body was strong, stronger than most humans. Because of such, her body had to ratio itself, keep its power in check every once in a while. Soon it had been discovered that there was a pattern when an 'attack' would hit. Once every month it would happen. Most of the time Bella was there to make sure the fever wouldn't escalate, but there were times such as this, when Bella wasn't there to treat it immediately, and the fever escalated to life threatening proportions.

"Bella..." a whisper barely audible emitted from Amore's lips.

"Hmm?" Bella hummed distractedly as she checked her pulse and temperature.

"S-Sorry..." Amore's eyes watched Bella, glazed over by the fever, "Sorry..." she repeated before she lapsed back into sleep.

"Is she all right now?" Shugorei enquired coming to stand behind Bella as she packed away her equipment.

"Yes, she'll be all right after some rest." Bella brushed a strand of hair from Amore's face. She turned her face up to Shugorei a small smile on her lips, "Thank you for helping my niece."

"No need for thanks."

"Fine then." Bella agreed, a little frown appearing on her face. She inched closer to Amore and lifted the blanket off her. She placed her arms under her and scooped her up into her arms standing on wobbly feet.

"Whoa, there!" Shugorei warned jumping foreword and easily taking the unconscious Amore from Bella's arms, "You were about to tip over for a minute there." Shugorei smiled at Bella as she frowned at him, "Why don't I carry her and you grab her stuff." He nodded to where Amore's bag was leaning against the little table.

"I can-" Shugorei's lifted eyebrows stopped Bella's comment and she huffed a bit in annoyance as she picked up her briefcase and retrieved Amore's bag. As Bella turned back around to face Shugorei she was greeted by two dark metallic eyes staring at her. In the doorway stood Hibari, Lily curled into his arms, Hibird nestled into his hair.

"There you are Kyo-kun! Where have you been?" Shugorei laughed as Hibari ignored him and kept his scowl on Bella as she walked over to where they were, "Oh right! I'm being rude. Kyo-kun this is Bella...?"

"Aroma Bella, I'm Amore's aunt." Bella gave a small smile extending her hand toward Hibari.

"Hn." Hibari grunted ignoring Bella's outstretched hand.

"Is he always like this?" Bella turned to Shugorei.

"Unfortunately," Shugorei sighed in mock dismay, "isn't that right, Kyo-kun?"

All Shugorei got was a deeper scowl as he turned his back on them and strode back out of the room.

"Kyo-kun, huh? Cute nickname." Bella teased getting her own jab at the Prefect for his rude behaviour, "And-" she paused, stopping the flow of childish comebacks she was thinking of. Instead, she thought for a minute while she watched Hibari glare at her, "... I have it! Kyo-kun, come here a sec."

In response to the sudden demand, Hibari crossed his arms across his chest – Lily having jumped from them to rub up against Bella – and lifted an eyebrow in defiance. His glare replaced by an intense icy stare.

"Oh, just come here." Bella huffed exasperated. She strode over to him and, before he could refuse or tug away, dragged him back to where Shugorei stood, who was watching the scene with a mixture of amusement and confusion. She let go of Hibari's arm, but then grabbed them both and positioned them outstretched, palms up. Before either of them could stop her or realize what she was doing, she seized Amore from Shugorei and placed her into Hibari's arms. Reflexively, Hibari gripped Amore to his chest, cradling the sick girl there.

"There we go!" Bella announced in a too cheery voice, a glint of mischief in her eyes, "I doubt poor Shugorei could walk down the steps from the temple to my car while carrying Amore. While you, Kyo-kun, are a young healthy man. It shouldn't be any problem right?"

"..."

"No objection?"

"... When I get the chance, I'm going to bite you to death." Hibari threatened before turning on his heel and striding away from them, Shugorei's snickers following after him.

* * *

By the time the red convertible screeched to a halt in front of the run down complex, Hibari was an embodiment of icy fury. It didn't bother him so much that he had to carry the sick girl, but for the fact that the red haired woman, her aunt, tricked him into doing such. It didn't help at all, when the herbivore clung to him like a child when he tried putting her into the convertible. For such a fragile girl, she sure had a powerful grip. The only reason he hadn't pried her off by force was because the girl's guardian wouldn't allow him. So, he ended up having to go along with them. It wouldn't have been so bad, if the woman hadn't broken every driving rule in ten minutes flat.

Yep. Once he was rid of the herbivore clinging to him, he would bite the speed demon to death. That was a guarantee.

"Here we are." Bella proclaimed opening the back door for Hibari. Lily jumped out first, perfectly fine after the daredevil driving of the red head, and rubbed her head against the woman's leg.

Hibari slid out and stood. He paused and adjusted his grip on the girl in his arms. She hummed, deep in the back of her throat, and snuggled her face into his chest. Her lips moved as she mumbled something in her sleep. Curious, Hibari lowered his head closer and heard her mumble, "Kyoko...Tsuna-kun..." Before she tightened her grip on his shirt and snuggled her face even further into the material.

"Hey! What are you kids doing?"

Hibari looked up to see Bella pointing, accusingly, at the second floor of the complex. His gaze travelled to where she was pointing and he saw a girl with light brunette hair and a boy with spiky brown hair. Both were looking down at them with confusion and relief in their faces. Hibari recognized the two immediately as Sasagawa Kyoko and Sawada Tsuna, both underclassmen of his.

"Amore-chan!" Kyoko cried out and she rushed to the stairs, as Tsuna called her name in surprise. He looked reluctantly, glancing between Kyoko, who was already down the stairs, and something behind him. He gave a reluctant sigh as he stayed where he was and leaned onto the railing gazing with watchful eyes. Tsuna's eyes met Hibari's and he gave him a little nod of greeting before turning his attention back to the two women talking as Hibari approached them.

"Okay, slow down." Bella raised her hands, stopping the flow of questions and explanations, "Let me get this straight. Your name's Kyoko-chan and that boy's Tsuna-kun and you're both friends of Amore's," A nod from Kyoko and she continued, "and you came here because you were worried about her when you heard she was sick." Another nod, "So you found out her address and came here, but when you got here the door was opened and nobody was home. So you were worried and about to call the police when I yelled up at you. Is that right?"

"Yep." Kyoko chirped happily, her gaze traveling between Bella and Amore.

"Good. For a minute there I thought I would have to call the cops on you two." Bella joked and looked back at Hibari amusedly, "I guess she was so out of it that she must have forgotten to close the door after her." She turned her gaze back to Kyoko, "Let me introduce myself. I am Aroma Bella, Amore's aunt. It's very nice to meet you, Kyoko-chan." They both bowed politely and Bella walked back to where he was and placed a hand on Hibari's back giving him a little push forward, smiling as he sent her an icy glare.

Another smile and she walked ahead chatting with Kyoko. Hibari followed – at a slower pace – and was the last up the stairs leading to the second floor. At the top he could see what Bella was talking about. Beside where Tsuna stood was an apartment door left ajar. Hibari walked down the hall just as Bella finished explaining what had happened and that Amore would be back at school by tomorrow, even though Hibari felt the high fever was still ravaging the girl's body.

"Tsuna-kun... Kyoko." Amore murmured from Hibari's chest. She turned her head and her eyes were glazed, half dropping as she tried to focus on the figures before her.

"Hey, Amore-chan." Tsuna said, affectionately placing a hand on the sick girl's head, but soon took it off with what seemed like confusion as his eyes gazed between his hand Amore. Absently he shook his head and continued on in the same affectionate tone, "How you doing?"

"Better..."

"Think you'll be okay for that welcoming party tomorrow?" Kyoko asked softly bending over to Amore's face level.

"Yes." She replied automatically, shifting her face back into Hibari's shirt with a 'see you tomorrow' and once again fell asleep.

"You two go on home. Get some rest. Amore will be fine with me and Kyo-kun." Bella waved shooing the two away with a smile, "It was nice meeting you two."

"You too." Kyoko smiled hopping down the stairs.

"Good bye." Tsuna bowed to Bella and turned to Hibari, "See you tomorrow Hibari." Tsuna nodded to the Prefect before following Kyoko down the stairs.

There was a tap on his shoulder and Hibari glanced at Bella who waved for him to follow as she stepped into the apartment. With a grunt Hibari followed the red head inside.

* * *

_**Haine-of-Winter: And done! ^^ I tried to make this chapter as long as I could. I'm not sure if this chapter is very exciting, though... To me it is, but that's just me. It's more of a filler chapter than anything. Also I'm not sure if it's too early to announce anything about Amore's past, but since I mentioned about Papa's death in the last chapter... I just ran along with that. And I wanted to get over the whole 'one month fever' thing. It will be explained in fuller detail later on. But for now I have the quick explanation in this chapter. I'm sorry about my description for the praying area of the temple. I tried looking up some pictures for what the praying area looks like but couldn't really find any that I thought would be good, especially since it's a Shinto temple.**_

_**Reply to reviews:**_

_**Pantera59**__**: Yes, yes I will definitely continue. Sorry about the late update. ^^ Do I get a virtual cookie now?**_

_**kuro usa-chan man**__**: Grazie, amica mia! XD I thank you from the bottom of my heart. It takes a lot of dedication to read a fanfic on the phone. I don't feel worthy of you readership! TT-TT**_

_**kawaii uchiha's**__**: Thank you for reviewing. ^^ Sorry for the late update, I'll try to keep them monthly if possible.**_

_**You know who this is**__**: Yes I know it's you again. And I know I got the eye color wrong. I'll see if I can fix it. But you know me so... *shrug***_

_**VampireLover189**__**: Thank you for reviewing. ^^ Finally that update you were waiting for. Thank you for being patient.**_

_**MikaUchiha666**__**: I understand what you mean. ^o^ But with Hibari I think you would be lucky to get away with just a bite and not a full blown smack down. Thank you for reviewing.**_

_**Again, I'll admit, reviews keep me going. But I got to be the one to get them so let's only hope that I can get the next chapter out soon. *praying* Thank you for reading (hopefully) I'll be hearing from all of you soon.**_


	7. Special Chapter: Hibari's Surprise

_**Disclaimer: I don't it. Wish I did! XC**_

_'**Ello people! ^0^ I just wanted to say... Happy (belated) Birthday to Hibari! XD He is just so awesome. I'm sad that I wasn't able to send this in on the actual day of his birthday. TTxTT Sorry about the fact that this is not an actual chapter. I just had to get this done for Hibari. This chapter is farther than what the story is actually at. So it might seem a little weird, especially later on.**_

_**Hopefully, Hibari will forgive me for my rudeness. *tonfa flies right pass my head* ... Or maybe not. Ok! I'll just stop blathering and let you all enjoy this quick special chapter while I run for my life. Enjoy! *dashes off in a puff of smoke***_

* * *

Amore sat in her class staring out the window in a daze. She just couldn't bring herself to get into her lessons today. Everything seemed to be covered in a cloud. She just couldn't perk up because... well, tomorrow was Hibari's birthday. But his birthday just happened to be the one day all children don't have to go to school, Children's day. And since there would be no school tomorrow Amore wasn't sure how to give him the cake she had made him. She wanted to help celebrate his 20th birthday. Amore let a heartfelt sigh pass from her lips as she continued her sad thoughts of poor Hibari being alone by himself on his birthday...

"Tsuki-chan would you please answer this question?" the teacher called from the front breaking Amore from her trance.

"Um-Pardon?"

"Can you answer the question on the board?" the teacher pointed to the black board where difficult equations were written in chalk.

"No, sorry..." Amore mumbled in embarrassment as the class laughed in amusement. That was the second time today that the teacher had caught Amore staring into the distance.

The teacher huffed in response, and then continued to solve the equation with the class. Amore only paid attention for no more than a minute when her mind wandered back to her dilemma. She was so engrossed in her worries about how to give Hibari his cake that she didn't even notice the bell had run, until there was a light tap on her shoulder.

"Amore-chan, are you feeling okay?" Kyoko asked worriedly, a small smile on her lips.

"No- I mean, yeah. Um- I'm not sure..." Amore admitted sheepishly, collecting her things for their next class.

"What's bothering you?"

"Um, well you see..." Amore twirled one of her silver braids around her finger nervously.

"Is it about Hibari-san's birthday?" Kyoko questioned.

"How did you-?"

"Well, you kept on mumbling under your breath about a 'cake' and 'Hibari' so I just thought that was what you were worried about." Kyoko deduced.

"Yeah." Amore sighed, "I made him a cake and everything, but the problem is I don't know how to give it to him since we don't have school tomorrow..."

"Oh, that's simple. He always hangs out at the school on his birthday."

"What really? Why?" Amore asked bewildered. Kyoko gave her a pointed look and Amore realized the obvious answer, "It's because he loves the school so much."

"Pretty much."

"How do you know this Kyoko?" Amore peered at the light haired brunette as they made their way to their final class of the day.

"Reborn and Haru-chan told me." Kyoko answered.

"Hmm..." Amore processed this information for a bit, "Does Tsuna and the others know this too?" When Kyoko nodded in reply Amore's faced turned thoughtful as she paused in walking.

"Amore-chan?" Kyoko stopped and looked at the silver haired girl curiously.

"Aha!" Amore snapped her fingers in conclusion. Her ruby eyes glowed passionately as she turned to Kyoko, "I have an idea! Get everyone together and come to my place after school. Okay?"

Kyoko was so surprised that she nodded and before Kyoko knew it, Amore was already down the hall, "Amore, where are you going?"

"Home! I've got to get ready! Don't forget to tell everyone to come to my place!" Amore called over shoulder and with that she went dashing down the stairs, a confused Kyoko watching her leave.

"This is what you needed everyone so urgently for?" Gokudera growled at a smiling Amore.

* * *

Everyone was gathered inside the small living room of Amore's apartment sitting on what they could. Tsuna and Kyoko sat on a couch together, while Yamamoto leaned against a bookshelf full of ancient novels. Ryohei bounced on the balls of his feet in the entrance to the kitchen and Gokudera sat with an arm draped over Haru's shoulders on Amore's other couch. Amore herself, perched on the arm of the couch Tsuna and Kyoko were sitting on, making sure she was well enough away from the fuming bomber.

"But Gokudera-kun..." Amore started.

"Why should we do anything for that bastard?" Gokudera grumbled, "Isn't that right, Juudaime?" he turned imploring eyes to the young boy on the other couch.

"Um, well, actually I think it would be a good idea." Tsuna agreed sheepishly.

"But, Juudaime!" Gokudera complained.

"No, 'buts' Gokudera, you've been outvoted." Haru chirped pinching his thigh, earning herself a glare. She ignored him, smiling at Amore, "I think it's a nice thought Amore-chan. I'll bet he'll be happy about it."

"Yeah, right." Gokudera murmured under his breath earning a glare from Haru.

"So, how exactly do you plan on doing this?" Yamamoto asked a twinkle of amusement in his eyes.

"Well... I was thinking we would need someone to distract him while we get everything else done." Amore explained, "I just don't know how to distract him though..."

"I know!" Ryohei chimed in loudly. Everyone looked at him in inquiry, "Why don't I invite him for a drink? I'm always trying to get him to come with me as a drinking buddy."

"Onii-chan you're both underage." Kyoko sighed at her older brother's ridiculous suggestion.

"But-"

"No, Onii-chan." Kyoko ordered sternly, but caringly at the same time.

"Might I make a suggestion." A high pitched voice inquired.

Everyone turned to see the baby hitman, Reborn, standing on the windowsill of the kitchen's opened window. He hopped into the house, over to where Ryohei stood and hopped onto the young man's shoulder.

"Reborn! What are you doing here?" Tsuna exclaimed standing up from the couch in alarm.

"I'm here to help you with your planning, Dame-Tsuna." Reborn answered kicking Tsuna in the head and sending him flying into the couch. Jumping back onto Ryohei's shoulder he focused his attention onto Amore, completely ignoring the groaning of Tsuna, "I think I know the best possible distraction for your scheme. Care to listen?"

"..." Amore thought for a moment wondering if she should trust Reborn with something like this. The smirk on the baby's face was disconcerting, but Amore swallowed the lump of dread in her throat and said anyways, "Let's hear it."

* * *

_I'm sooooo dead! Thanks a lot, Reborn!_ Amore cried in her head, as she dodged another tonfa coming straight at her face.

"Give back what you took, herbivore." The icy tone of the Prefect made Amore flinch as his blazing metallic eyes met her own ruby ones.

Amore swallowed hard and her grip tightened on the red arm band in her hand. The letters 'Disciplinary Committee' were threaded in gold on the red material, glinting off the sun as Amore twisted this way and that, to avoid being hit by Hibari's tonfas.

"I'm sorry but I can't do that Hibari-san." Her voice came out surprisingly calm as she led the jet haired man away from Namimori High School. Inside her head she was cursing Reborn for this idea. He was the one who had suggested taking the Prefect's armband, lead him away from the school while the others got everything else ready. When Reborn suggested that she be the one to get the band, Amore had complained adamantly. As a response Reborn smirked his smirk and said;

"Amore-chan it is your idea, so you should feel obligated to do this. Also... you seem to be able to deal with him better than anyone else here. You'll be just fine."

_Damn Reborn and his logic!_ Amore cursed jumping up to avoid a blow to the legs. As she landed she felt a vibration come from her pocket. Keeping a wary eye on Hibari, she snatched her phone from her pocket and flipped it open, placing it beside her ear, "Hello?"

"We're ready here." Kyoko's voice chirped from the phone, "You can start heading to the school now."

"Kay, I'll be there in a minute." Amore exhaled in relief as she put her phone away.

"School?" Hibari's glare seemed to intensify as he took a menacing step toward her, "What are you going to do at the school?"

"Nothing!" Amore's squeak betrayed her as she pivoted on her foot and started to race away from the angry skylark.

She kept running and running until she made it to the school. Pausing at the gate she chanced a glance behind her and yelped in surprise at the sight of Hibari quickly bearing down on her, tonfa at the ready. She raced into the school as quickly as possible and raced up the stairs, Hibari's footsteps echoing behind her. On the 3rd floor she paused in front of a door and waited for Hibari. When she saw his scowl emerge above the steps, her lips couldn't help but lift at the corners. The action made the Prefect pause in confusion and his scowl weaken. Noticing what she was doing Amore stopped smiling and quickly scurried into the room in front of her, sliding the door shut behind her with a resounding thump.

Hibari's glare returned with a new depth of anger as he realized the room she had gone into. That was his office. No herbivores were allowed in there without his permission. Not ever. Hibari strode over to the room and slammed the door open, taking one step in before...

_Bang! POW!_

"Surprise!" multiple voices shouted as confetti fell onto Hibari, who was standing frozen in surprise. As the confetti slowly stopped raining down on the Prefect his scowl slowly returned as he observed the room around him. Not only was there multiple herbivores in his office, they had deemed it upon themselves to hang streamers and weak pathetic decorations around his office. Above his desk was a banner which said "Happy Birthday, Hibari!" That, in particular, made his eye twitch in annoyance. What caught his eye though was the plain white box on the center of his desk.

"Happy Birthday, Hibari-san!" Amore smiled at the Prefect, even though he had been trying to kill her not even a minute ago. A party popper was in her hand, explaining where the loud banging noise and confetti came from, she placed it on his desk and looked at him inquisitively, "Hibari-san?"

Slowly and deliberately Hibari silently wiped the confetti off his shoulders and hair, his face a mask of indifference. When that was done he met all the eyes of Tsuna and the others, "What do you herbivores think you are doing in my office?"

"Throwing you a birthday party, what else?" Haru chirped happily from beside him. She waved her hand, a party popper gripped in it, and asked oblivious to the rising tension, "What do you think?"

"..."

"Come on, Hibari! Answer the question already!" Gokudera barked his own face in a scowl of displeasure. As a reply a tonfa flew at the silver haired man and Gokudera cursed as he ducked, "Hey! What was that for?"

"I'll bite every one of you herbivores to death." Hibari declared his other tonfa already out.

The small room erupted into chaos as Hibari charged at Gokudera who jumped away from the blow. Ryohei shouted encouragements at the fighting as Kyoko dragged him from the room, Haru right behind. Streamers were ripped down as Hibari swung his tonfas – having retrieved the other one from the wall – at Gokudera. Yamamoto laughed while he watched the excitement going on. Tsuna tried to intervene but was then targeted as Hibari set his eyes on the younger boy.

"Hiii! Hibari wait!" Tsuna cried as he stumbled out of the room, an angry Prefect after him.

"Boss! Hibari you bastard stop attacking the Boss!" Gokudera shouted following after the other two and pulling out some dynamite as he went.

"Maa, maa. Let's all just calm down, okay?" Yamamoto laughed, clearly amused, as he too left the desecrated office.

Amore watched as Yamamoto shut the door behind him. With a disappointed sigh, she started to clean up the mess that was the Reception room. As she cleaned she listened to the commotion from below move farther away. She glimpsed up and saw that they were outside now. Hibari was attacking Tsuna still. Gokudera soon followed them outside yelling angrily and he stupidly threw one of his dynamite. It exploded with a huge _bam_ and Amore sighed as she saw the Prefect turn to the silver haired bomber his lips moving as he threatened Gokudera. As Hibari went to strike, Ryohei jumped into the fray. Riled up by the fighting he punched at Hibari. Hibari blocked with a tonfa and used the other one to hit Ryohei square in the gut. The momentum threw Ryohei back and he flew into Gokudera. Both crumpled to the ground in a heap of arms and legs and Hibari approached them menacingly.

Amore watched as the two detangled themselves and Hibari stood above them, tonfa already lifting into the air to strike...

"Ciaossu, Hibari."

Amore yelped in surprise as a voice sounded from beside her. She looked over and saw Reborn perched in the open window, looking down at the fighting below.

_How did Reborn get there? Was that window even open before?_ Amore wondered as she looked to see if the Prefect had heard the baby. He seemed to because his icy metallic gaze was fixed on the baby beside her.

"What do you want, baby?" Hibari's voice drifted up to them as he lowered his arms and turned, fully facing them.

"I'm just here to drop off a gift." Reborn smirked, holding up a small box in his hand, "Also I wanted to tell you something."

Hibari cocked his head in question his eyes never wavering.

"The person who thought all this up," Reborn waved a hand, indicating the destroyed decorations, "was Amore-chan here." Amore gaped at the baby as he smirked and continued, "Plus, I believe she still has something that belongs to you."

It took a minute for Reborn's words to sink in, but when they did she gasped and looked at her hand. Even as she cleaned the red armband had still been gripped tightly within her hand. Horrified, Amore looked at Reborn who tilted his fedora to her and jumped from the window. She gasped and watched as Reborn pulled a string on his shirt and a glider opened up on his back, allowing him to glide away to safety.

"Good luck, Amore-chan." She heard Reborn call as he flew farther away.

_What does he mean by 'good luck'?_ A shiver ran up her spine and she looked down, straight into the gaze of a very, _very_ angry Prefect. Her gulp must have been audible from even up there because she swore she saw Hibari's lips twitch into a smirk as he tore his gaze away from hers and strode back into the school.

"Amore-chan! I think you should probably get out of there!" Yamamoto called from below, a slight smile on his face.

Amore wished she could just leave, but... She glanced behind her at the mess still littering Hibari's office. _It wouldn't be right to leave it like this, especially since it's his birthday._ Amore turned her attention to Yamamoto again and called down, "You guys go on home without me! I'm going to clean up this mess first!"

"Are sure?" that was Tsuna, standing beside Yamamoto, his face full of worry, the others gathering around.

"Yeah, I'll be okay. Thanks for your help guys!"

"If you say so..." Tsuna said and they all trekked out of the school saying goodbye to her as they left.

Once all of them had passed the school gate she sighed and turned around ready to clean up the mess the fighting had made. She yelped in surprise though when she found Hibari standing right behind her. He was so close that she could feel his body heat radiating off him. She had to gulp hard before she could even work up the courage to look up into his face.

"Um...Hi?" Amore tried as she stared into Hibari's metallic eyes.

His face was a mask of indifference as he reached forward and grabbed her small hand within his large one. Lifting it up, he used his other hand to start to pry her death grip off the band she had.

"Oh, sorry!" she blushed releasing the tension from her hand.

"Hn" Hibari grunted as he pinned the band back into place on his school jacket.

"Um, I-I'm really sorry about the mess, Hibari-san. I'll clean it up right away." Just as she stepped to the side to move pass him, his arm shot out and blocked her path, "Um... Hibari-san, what are you doing?"

Hibari didn't say anything as he placed his other arm on the other side of her, trapping her between the window and him. He dipped his head low beside hers. His breath warmed her ear sending tingling sensations into her gut, "Sing." He commanded in a low husky voice.

"W-what e-exactly?" Amore stuttered, flustered by the hot breath caressing her ear.

"The usual."

_Usual? Oh, right that would probably be the school anthem._

Amore inhaled deeply and sang in a clear voice for the skylark in front of her. When she finished, she waited, expecting Hibari to move. He didn't. Exasperated, she went to duck under his arms. Only she didn't get far because one his arms snaked around her waist, and crushed her against him.

"H-Hibari-s-an!" she squeaked fidgeting, trying to push away from him, "W-w-what – Eek!" she squeaked again when she felt him bit her earlobe, gently tugging on it with his teeth. A wave of pleasure passed through her as she said in a whispery-husky voice, "H-Hibari-san..."

"Hn" Hibari grunted as he moved his lips to just under her ear. His lips moved from under ear to her neck travelling down to her nape. He moved her shirt's collar back as he found his mark. The purple scar was a permanent reminder that she belonged to him and he smirked against her skin as he moved his lips onto it sucking at the area of the scar. He heard Amore intake a sharp breath as his tongue danced along her skin.

"Hibari-san..." her voice was completely husky, full of want as she said his name.

Hibari growled against her nape and before she even knew it his lips had claimed hers. She moaned as his mouth moulded with hers and she unconsciously gripped his shirt to keep herself grounded. He hungrily devoured her as the kiss grew even deeper. He tangled his hand in her hair – destroying the perfect braids she had put them in – and tilted her head farther back, allowing him better access. His tongue dipped out and he ran it across her lips, waiting for her to open up for him.

At the sudden feel of his tongue on her lips, Amore gasped and Hibari took the opportunity to enter. Her tongue fought with his as the kiss deepened even more so. They explored each other with their tongues until the need for air was too great.

They broke away panting, their faces mere inches from each other. Amore's face was flushed and her eyes glazed over from the heat of the kiss. Though his face wasn't flushed like hers, his hot gaze spoke volumes as they were glued to her swollen lips.

"Um, Hibari-san?" Amore gulped watching as his eyes followed the movement.

"Hmm?" he nuzzled his face into her neck resting his head there, breathing in the scent of apples.

"What just-" Suddenly, _Lust for Blood_ filled the silence in the room. Hibari moved his head away from her neck and raised an eyebrow in question.

"It's my phone." She explained letting go of Hibari's shirt she reached into her pocket and flipped the phone open. The ID said it was Bella and Amore quickly pressed the call button, "Bella?"

"Where are you?" a woman's voice demanded on the other end.

Amore lifted the phone away from her ear as Bella continued ranting about her being late for an "important" meeting and that she better get her butt there, "Okay, okay, I'll head over right now." Amore quickly said ending the call. Unlatching the arms from around her waist she slid past Hibari and towards the door. After opening the door she paused staring ahead of her in silence before she turned to him and said cheerfully, "Happy Birthday, Hibari-san! See you tomorrow!" And with that she rushed out of there.

Hibari leaned against the wall with a huff as he watched Amore leave the school. He saw her pause at the gate and look back at the school hand at her lips. She shook her head then disappeared beyond the gates.

Hibari leaned there in silence as the kiss the two of them had shared replayed over and over in his mind's eye. He couldn't get the herbivore out of his head. The look of her lips, deliciously swollen, her flushed face after their kiss and her gaze, glazed over by passion. All the images were imprinted into his brain.

Shaking his head and taking a deep breath, Hibari dispersed the last remnants of passion as he walked over to his desk and sat down. And that's when noticed it, the white box that had been sitting on his desk the whole entire time. Curious, he slid the box closer to him. That was when he noticed the white envelope on top with his name written on it. Opening it up first he read the quick message;

_Happy 20th Birthday Hibari-san! I hope you have a great day on this special day!_

_-Amore_

Hibari placed the card back into the envelope and placed them to the side. Examining the box he figured how to open it and the top half flipped up revealing a white cake. Most of it was immaculately white, save for the few purple icing dotting the edges – that looked strangely like clouds – and a little Hibird made out of hard candy. Covering most of the surface of the cake was "Happy Birthday, Hibari" in purple icing. Beside the box was a bag of paper plates, forks, and a large knife.

Taking the knife, Hibari cut a piece from the cake and deposited a piece on a plate. A fork in hand, he placed some of the cake in his mouth. It tasted like vanilla but there was a hint of something else; a very subtle taste of... apples.

Hibari's lips rose into a wisp of a smile as he ate another bite of the apple cake.

* * *

_**Haine-of-Winter: And finite! ^^ I'm glad that I was able to get this done relatively close to Hibari's birthday. Sorry that it's late Hibari!Xp Next time I'll get it on the day for sure!**_

_**Anyway, sorry to everyone who was probably hoping for the next chapter of this fanfic I just needed to do this first. Besides I actually got some action between Hibari and Amore. That should help right?**_

_**Reply to reviews:**_

_**MikaUchiha666****: Thanks for the review. ^^ I'm not sure Hibari being semi is a good thing or not…**_

_**Bloody-WhiteRose97DM****: Thank you for reviewing. And thanks for telling me about the username changed, I'll keep it in mind. You're not alone when I say I almost cried myself when I finally updated. It just makes me happy that someone would cry for my story. ^-^**_

_**Reviews are awesome and I should probably get out of here so I can write the next chapter of this fic. Thank you everyone and please look out for the next update!**_

_**Note: **_**Lust for Blood**_** is a song from Gackt. I just thought it would be totally appropriate to have it as her ring tone.  
**_


	8. Party and Gifts

_**Disclaimer: Do not own. Too bad…**_

_** Song does not belong to me it is Donna Summer's **_**The Power of One**

_**Really there are no excuses on why I'm so late in updating this. All of my fanfics haven't been updated in a while. I just haven't had anytime or I've been distracted by something else whenever I was on the computer. I know I'm really lazy. I've got to really get out of the habit...-.- Well at least the chapter is coming out. And now you'll all be happy that I wrote it!^w^**_

* * *

"Just place her on the couch while I make something for us to drink." Bella instructed. She motioned Hibari to follow her down the hall as she walked to an adjoining room and disappeared into it.

He silently followed and was greeted by the sight of a sparsely furnished living room. Two couches faced one another, a small coffee table separating them. The only thing that the dark blue walls came into contact with was a large bookshelf that was surprisingly filled to the brim with leather bound volumes.

Hibari strode over to one of the couches and proceeded to place the girl down on it. Unfortunately, the herbivore gripped on tighter and would not relinquish her hold. He once again wondered how such a sick girl could grip onto him so tightly. He gazed down at the girl in his arms, perplexed as what to do with her.

"She's not letting go again?"

Hibari turned his head to the woman behind him. She was standing in an entry way to a kitchen. And like most of the apartment it was small and only held basic furnishings. In her hands was a tray with two cups of steaming tea.

Hibari didn't reply, but instead sat down with the girl in his lap. As soon as he removed his arms from beneath her, she murmured something in her sleep and wrapped her arms around Hibari's middle, snuggling her face into his stomach. Hibari gazed down at the sleeping girl with an arched brow, finding it amusing to see the girl snuggling him close in her sleep, when awake she feared him.

"Aww, that's so cute! She thinks you're her pillow." Bella cooed as she placed the tray down on the coffee table.

Hibari scowled at the older woman's pathetic comment and he went to pry Amore's arms off him. He was stopped when a hand landed on his shoulder and he looked to see Bella smiling at him.

"Don't do that." Hibari could see an underlying threat in her eyes. He raised a brow in questioning. She removed her hand from his shoulder and sat on the couch facing opposite him, "I don't hear you complaining so just leave her be. She needs the rest." Thinking about it, he nodded his head in assent. Bella's eyes turned soft as she gazed at the girl in his lap, but suddenly she shook her head and grabbed a steaming cup off the tray, offering it to him, "Here have some off this." She winked at him as he took the tea from her, "It's my own special brew. Trust me when I say it's one of a kind."

Hibari looked at her curiously before he sipped some of the tea. Immediately he noticed the sweetness of the liquid, more so than any other tea he had tried before. There was an underlying hint of sour as he gulped down some more. The combination of taste was familiar. Almost like...

"Apples?"

"How did you know?" She stared at him surprised, "No one ever guesses that."

He looked down at the girl in his lap. His mind lost in the memories of their last encounter.

"Kyo-kun?" Hibari glanced up at Bella, "What are you thinking about?"

"None of your business, herbivore." He growled, irritated at the woman's sudden question.

"Well, excuse me-" A loud _beep_ interrupted her, "My pager." She explained before she unattached a small black pager from her skirt's belt. Reading what was on the screen she cursed before she downed the rest of her tea and jumped up grabbing her briefcase from the floor.

"I have to go. They need me down at the clinic." She explained distractedly as she headed for the hallway. However, she stopped before disappearing behind the wall and pointed at Hibari – who by now was scowling at the red head, "Take care of Amore until I get back." And before Hibari could refuse she was out of the apartment, the door slamming shut behind her.

Hibari sat in silent fury. He really did need to bite that herbivore to death.

"Papa..." Hibari looked down at the girl nuzzled in his lap. Stray strands of her silver hair covered her face and Hibari unconsciously swiped them away. His fingers intertwined with the silver tresses as he felt their softness and, absently, he played with the strands as he watched the sleeping girl. She looked peaceful in her sleep, unlike whenever he saw her awake. She either feared him – like most herbivores – or was angry at him. The latter made him frown, remembering how she had said that she hated him at their last encounter. Without realising it, he tugged on the strands of hair in his hand.

"Hmm?" Hibari gazed at Amore's face as her eyes fluttered open. She tilted her head and stared at him with a dazed look in her eyes from the fever. Without saying anything she unlatched herself from him and straddled his lap as she looked at him curiously.

"What?"

"Purple..." she murmured as she reached a hand towards his face.

Automatically, he snatched her wrist and glared at her, "What do you think you're doing, herbivore?"

She tilted her head innocently and surprisingly gave him a small smile, "Cloud..."

Hibari raised a brow in question. But she didn't reply, and instead scooted closer on his lap until their faces were only inches apart. This time when she reached up to his face he didn't stop her as she rested her hand on top of his head. Her personality reminded him of a child as she stroked his head, intertwining her slender fingers in his jet black hair.

Hibari was surprised to find he was relaxing under her caresses and he allowed his eyes to travel over the girl in front of him. She was tiny compared to him, but he could tell that she was in the last stages of maturity as his eyes appreciatively took in the girl's curvy figure and modest cleavage in their school uniform. His eyes continued to travel upward until they landed on Amore's nape. Peeking out from under her uniform was the white bandage she was using to cover up his mark. A sudden feeling of irritation filled him as he stared at the bandage covering his mark. He suddenly seized the collar of Amore's shirt and tugged it back revealing the whole bandage underneath. Amore stopped fiddling with his hair and peeked at him curiously as he pulled the bandage off. Underneath was a faint purple scar – his mark.

He growled throatily in pride. This was _his_ mark, one that meant that the girl on his lap was his prey and his alone.

Amore squeaked in surprise as Hibari grabbed her around the waist and crushed her against him. But she giggled childishly as Hibari's breath tickled her neck. Hibari smirked. The herbivore didn't even realize the consequences of bearing his mark. He would have to rectify that as soon as possible.

He was about to place his lips on the scar when he felt the girl go limp in his arms. He lifted his head and saw that Amore had fallen back to sleep. She curled herself into a ball and breathed lightly as he moved them into a more comfortable position on the couch.

He couldn't help but let out a yawn at the sight of the sleeping girl in his arms. The day was almost done and he was feeling the effects of missing his after school rest. One arm around Amore's waist while his other hand absently played with her hair and before he was aware of it, found himself drifting off to sleep.

* * *

Bella entered the apartment quietly. The clinic had been overrun with patients when she had gotten there and by the time she had noticed it, it was already 11:00.

Sighing in weariness she padded softly over to the living room.

She stopped, startled.

In the moonlight room, Hibari and Amore were on the couch together, sleeping peacefully.

"Cute." Bella whispered, peering at the two of them. If she didn't know any better they would almost look like lovers...

A devilish idea entered her mind and she smirked before padding softly to the guest room that Amore had set up just for her.

She got changed into some spare clothes and climbed into the bed. Bella smiled as she closed her eyes. She couldn't wait for the morning to come.

* * *

Amore blinked, her mind not grasping the situation.

She had awoken to find herself sleeping on her own couch at home. But she wasn't alone.

One arm around her waist and another tangled in her hair, Hibari slept peacefully curled around her like a protective blanket.

All Amore could do was stare at the serene expression on the feared Head Prefect's face as he lightly breathed in and out. Her eyes scanned his face. Long eyelashes dusted his cheeks and his face was angled in all the right places for a young maturing man. Once again she had to admit that Hibari was a handsome man, while he slept,_ If only his attitude was different. Girls would probably flock to him like moths to a flame._

She felt reluctant to wake him up, but she could see that it was late and he probably had to go home. Freeing one of her arms she gently shoved his shoulder, "Hibari-san, wake up." She gave his shoulder another shove, "Hiba-"

In a blink of an eye she suddenly found herself pinned to the couch beneath Hibari as his eyes fluttered open, "What is it, herbivore?"

_He's got some amazing reflexes_, Amore thought as she gaped at the man glaring at her with half-lidded eyes, "Um..."

"Answer." Hibari growled as he placed his face mere centimetres away from her own.

Amore gulped as her heart started racing a fast tempo. She watched as Hibari's eyes followed the motion. Her words caught in her throat and she had to gulp in large amounts of air – to which Hibari looked amused by – before she could answer his question, "I was trying to wake you up so you could go home. It's really late and Shugorei must be very worried about you..." she trailed off as his amused look disappeared, "What's wrong?"

"You woke me up for that?" he shook his head and released her before standing up. He yawned into his hand before glaring at her, "Shu does not worry about me at all, herbivore. Nor do I want him too."

"Oh, I see." Amore sat up and looked down sheepishly into her lap. She suddenly felt a presence right above her head and looked up sharply to see that Hibari was leaning above her, too close for her comfort.

"Herbivore..."

"Yes?" she blinked at him owlishly.

She automatically flinched when he lowered his head beside her own. She could feel his breath in her ear as he breathed, "You are not to cover up _this_," she squeaked when she felt his lips go to her nape, where she didn't realize was missing the bandage until then. After nipping the mark he continued, "... ever again. Do you understand?"

All she could do was nod as Hibari lifted his head, smirked down at her and strode out of the room. In the back of her hyperventilating mind she heard the faint click of the apartment door as it closed behind him.

* * *

"What are you doing?"

Bella stared bleary-eyed at Amore as she went from one side of the kitchen to the other working furiously on something.

"Good morning, Bella." Amore paused beaming at her.

"Don't you know what time it is?" Bella yawned into her hand, squinting at the clock on the microwave, "It's only 5 in the morning."

"I needed extra time so I could bake something for Hibari-san and Shugorei as a thank you gift." Amore explained as she placed a pan into an oven and set the heat and time for it to bake. Going over to the kitchen sink she started to wash batter from her hands and face.

"That's nice of you. Though, I wouldn't say Kyo-kun deserves it as much as Shugorei does." Bella strode over to a cupboard and pulled out a kettle. Placing some water into it she set it on the stove to boil.

"Bella," Bella turned to her niece curiously at Amore's disbelieving tone, "Please tell me you do not call Hibari-san 'Kyo-kun'." When Bella smiled mischievously at her, Amore groaned into her palm. Sitting wearily at the small kitchen table she covered her face miserably, "You do know-"

"There's no need to worry about me. I can already summarize what he's like." Bella waved away the questioning look Amore was giving her as she looked expectantly into the living room, "Speaking of Kyo-kun... Where is the little devil?"

"He left earlier this morning."

"What? Aww! That's no fun!" Bella pouted childishly, "And here I was thinking I would be able to get some entertainment this morning."

"Entertainment?" Amore asked, wary of the plotting gleam in Bella's eyes.

"Oh don't look at me like that." Bell frowned just as the kettle screamed with steam. Turning her back to her niece she poured the hot water into a mug, "I just wanted to see what would happen when the two of you woke up that's all."

"Y-you s-saw?" Amore sputtered disbelievingly.

"Yes, I saw." Bella replied calmly as she took a seat at the table with her steaming tea.

She placed her elbows of the table and rested her chin on the back of hands as she looked thoughtfully at Amore, "Actually, with the way you two were clinging to each other, I would almost think you two were lov-"

"I'm going to go get ready for school." Amore hastily announced, her chair screeching against the floor as she fled from the room.

"-ers..." Bella finished just as she heard Amore's door slam shut behind her. Bella blinked at the entryway to the kitchen before she shook her head with a laugh and sipped some of her tea. Leaning back she stared up at the ceiling with a small smile on her face, "Little Amore is slowly becoming a mature woman. You would be proud... Niccholei."

* * *

_I guess I left a little too early._

Amore gazed at the deserted school in front of her. She had rushed out of the house as soon as she finished making the cake for Hibari and Shugorei, all due to the fear of Bella saying anything more about a budding relationship between her and the scary powerful skylark. Already she had to endure the taunts from her aunt about them sleeping on the couch together. Amore was afraid that the red haired doctor would get a crazy plan in her head to get them together. She could already imagine Hibari's reaction to any such notions from her aunt. Shivers of fear involuntarily ran down her spine and she gripped the box with the cake inside to her chest.

"I'll just keep the two as far apart as possible." Amore concluded looking down at Lily – who had come with her – in determination.

She looked back at the school thoughtfully then back down at the cat, who was staring at her curiously, "Maybe, we should leave and come back later..."

"Hey! What are you doing here?"

Amore looked up, surprised. She saw the man with the Elvis hair style that she had seen with Hibari before, glaring at her as he approached her.

"I-I, um..."

"School won't be starting for another hour." The man explained as he stopped in front of her, "Explain right now what you are doing here at this hour."

"Y-you see I left the house early and I-I didn't notice the t-time when I left." Amore laughed nervously, "I-if you want me to leave I-I will."

"Why did you leave your house at this hour?" the man had stopped glaring at her and instead looked mildly confused at Amore.

"Um, I can't really explain." Amore blushed and she saw the corner of the man's lips turned up slightly. Trying to divert his attention, she suddenly bowed and said, "Um, my name is Tsuki Amore. I'm a new transfer student."

"Kusakabe Tetsuya." He bowed politely to her in response.

"Um, Kusakabe-san, are you a part of the Disciplinary Committee?" Amore asked seeing the red ban pinned to his school jacket.

"Yes, why do you ask?"

"Does that mean that Hibari-san is here as well?" Amore looked hopefully at Kusakabe her hold on the box in her hands relaxing.

"Why do you want to see him?" Kusakabe asked suspicious of why Amore was hopeful to see his higher up. He knew very well that a lot people held grudges against Hibari and their committee. The girl standing before him could very well be one of those people...

Amore grew nervous once again at the look Kusakabe was giving her, "I-I-"

"What are you doing here, herbivore?" a familiar voice said from right behind her.

With a surprised squeak she jumped and turned to see Hibari overshadowing her, "H-Hibari-san!"

Hibari yawned leaning against the gate of the school, "Tetsu," Hibari glanced at his right hand man. Kusakabe immediately stood to attention, "Do one more sweep around the school. Have a full report on my desk by the time school starts."

"Yes, Kyo-san." Kusakabe looked between the two of them sceptically before he respectively bowed to his superior and left to finish his search around the school.

Left alone, Hibari inclined his head to Amore to speak. By the look on his face he was not in the mood for Amore's babbling and that combined with the fact that she was alone with the Head Prefect – minus Lily – made her fidget nervously, "Um, well..."

So caught up in her nervous thoughts she didn't even notice that Hibari had grabbed one of his tonfa and had it raised above his head to strike her in annoyance. When her ears caught a _whoosh_ sound, her body automatically leaned to the side. She gaped surprised to see that she had nearly been bashed on the head by the tonfa.

"Answer, now." He poised his tonfa for another blow as he glared at her. Annoyance radiated off him. She had dodged the blow, but he was going to make sure the next one hit.

Seeing that he was going to bash her on the head if she didn't answer, Amore shoved the box forward into his chest, "This is for you and Shugorei!"

Hibari instinctively clutched the box as Amore let it go and stepped away from him. He looked at the small white box curiously.

"It's a thank you gift for helping me." Embarrassed, she blushed and looked away from Hibari as she started to ramble on about being grateful to the two of them.

"Herbivore."

Startled, Amore stopped her rambling and looked at Hibari. She was surprised to find that he had placed the box precariously on the gate and that he had also closed the distance between them, towering above her. She instantly went to step back, but a sudden arm around her waist stopped her. She froze as she stared blankly at the Prefect, "What is it?"

Hibari raised an eyebrow in surprise at the shift in attitude. There was no fear or anger in her eyes.

Amore was surprised when Hibari smirked suddenly as if he thought something was funny and wasn't prepared when he suddenly grabbed a hold of her shirt's collar and pulled it down to bare her shoulder.

"W-what do y-you think you're d-doing?" Amore squeaked as Hibari pulled her fully against him. He leaned over her until his head was on level to her neck and he immediately placed his lips on the purple scar there.

"H-Hibari-san..." Amore murmured, trying to make sense of the situation as the sensation of his tongue lapping against the sensitive spot between her shoulder and neck made her mind foggy.

"Hn" Hibari nipped her with his teeth and suckled the skin between his teeth.

Involuntarily, a quiet moan escaped her lips as his mouth traveled further up her neck. She was starting to feel light-headed from the effects of Hibari's tongue when something brushed up against her leg, knocking the pleasure filled fog from her mind.

"Eep!" Amore clutched onto Hibari as she moved her head and looked to see what had brushed against her. She let out a surprised laugh when she saw that it had been Lily trying to get her attention.

"Herbivore..." A low growl beside her ear surprised her and she turned to see she was face to face with Hibari.

"Umm... Yes?"

"Let go."

"Let go?" Amore looked down and realized she had her arms wrapped around him in a death grip. Stammering apologies she jumped off him and backed away as he placed his clothes back into order.

"Sorry about that!" she bowed to him and called to Lily. When the cat padded over to her Amore picked her up, "So, umm," she looked at Hibari who was scowling at her, "I guess I'll come back later when the school is actually open." She turned, but looked over her shoulder to call, "See you later, Hibari-san!" And before Hibari could say otherwise, she dashed out of there as fast as possible.

* * *

"So this is your house, Tsuna-kun?" Amore asked as she gazed at the ordinary home that matched all the others in the neighbourhood Tsuna lived in, "It looks really homey. Definitely better appealing than my complex."

"I guess." Tsuna agreed reminded about the shady looking apartment building Amore lived in.

"Are we going in?" Amore asked as she patiently waited for Tsuna to snap out of the daze he was in.

"Huh? Oh yeah. Come on in." He quickly recovered and opened the gate.

"Is everyone already here?" Amore looked around as they stepped into the house. It was surprisingly quiet even though a party was supposed to be going on within its walls.

"Yep. They should be outside in the back." Tsuna explained as they took their shoes off and started down the hall. He looked over his shoulder apologetically as he led her to the back, "We're a rowdy bunch so the back is the best place to cause the least trouble."

"Really?" Amore giggled at the thought of her new friends causing any kind of ruckus.

"Unfortunately."

_Boom_

Amore staggered as the house shook suddenly after what she believed to be an explosion sounded from the direction they were heading, "What was that?"

"My life." Tsuna grumbled before he strode to the end of the hall where he opened a door and stepped outside to yell, "Lambo!"

_Lambo?_ Amore wondered who that was as she dashed over to where Tsuna glowered in the doorway. She stopped short when she saw the state the backyard was in.

Her new friends had set up decorations and tables for food for the party but all of it was either burned or ripped down. One table that used to be full of food had been flipped in the explosion to be used as a shield. Amore saw Kyoko, Hana, Yamamoto and Haru crawl from behind it. She was about to run over to them and ask if they were alright when she glimpsed a blur of black and white right before she was tackled to the ground.

"Oomph!" The air in her lungs whooshed out her as she made impact with the ground. Dazed she looked down and all she saw was bushy black hair and a small pair of horns sticking out from the mess of black. By the sobbing she could tell right away that it was a child clinging onto her; blubbering into her chest. The paternal instinct in her took over and she couldn't help but cuddle the child closer as she tried to soothe it, "Hey, hey. What's the matter sweetie?"

"S-stupidera won't leave me alone!" the child looked up at her with big teary green eyes, "Lambo just wanted to help, but Stupidera wouldn't let me, so I threw a grenade at him!"

"Stupidera? Grenade?" Amore tilted her head perplexed by the boy's blabber.

"He means Gokudera." Amore looked up to see Tsuna leaning over her. A sigh escaped his lips as he relinquished the crying boy from her grip, "Lambo you know you can't go throwing your grenades around whenever you get upset at Gokudera." Tsuna lightly admonished as he wiped Lambo's face with his sleeve, "Now the decorations and food is ruined because of the explosion."

"Stupidera deserved it." Lambo grumbled under his breath crossing his arms over his chest defiantly.

"Lambo." Tsuna's tone was stern as he said the nine year olds name, "Even if Gokudera deserved it doesn't mean that you can just ruin everyone's hard work." He placed Lambo on the ground in front of Amore, "Now say you're sorry to Amore-chan. After all it's her welcoming party you destroyed."

Lambo looked at the ground in guilt, "I'm sorry."

"Thank you," Amore said kindly patting Lambo's head as he and Tsuna looked at her in confusion. A small smile lit her face as she looked at the child sympathetically, "for saying sorry. I know how hard it is too say it at times. It just means how much you regret your actions." Amore explained to them as she wiped some dirt off Lambo, "Now how about you go inside and fetch a garbage bag so we can throw out all the burned stuff?" Amore suggested with a smile as she stood.

"Uh-huh!" Lambo nodded happily and he dashed inside singing loudly to himself.

Amore smiled as she watched him disappear into the house. When he was gone from sight she turned around to see everyone looking at her expectantly, waiting for her reaction. She inspected the damage from the explosion and saw that most of it would have to be thrown out. There was only one food table that wasn`t damaged at all right behind where Ryohei stood. She briefly wondered how that happened but her thought was interrupted when Tsuna, looking very guilty, bowed to her, "Sorry Amore-chan! I didn't think anything like this was going to happen. You must be so disappointed..."

"Disappointed?" Tsuna's head snapped up at the question in her voice, "I'm not disappointed."

"Your not?" Kyoko suddenly piped up from where she was starting to collect ruined food.

"Why would I be?"

"Because-"

"There's no use in being upset over a little setback like this." Amore smiled confidently as she met everyone's eyes.

_A_ little _setback?_ Tsuna sweated thinking that it was amazing that Amore wasn't freaking out about anything.

Amore rolled up her sleeves enthusiastically, "Let's get this cleaned up!" she announced and they all set to cleaning up the damage from the explosion.

* * *

It didn't take them long to clean the destroyed party to a better state than it had been in. Though the scorch marks in the grass could only be healed by nature, the rest of the party looked good.

"You had pet deer?" Haru gaped admiringly at Amore.

"Reindeer to be exact." Amore sipped some of the juice salvaged from the explosion and continued, "We bred them for Christmas time. You should see all the parades they hold. It's magical..."

"Magical..." Haru sighed dreamily, "I wish I could go to Canada and watch all those parades. It sounds amazing."

"It is. I've always loved Christmas." Amore smiled warmly, "Isn't it such a romantic holiday?"

Haru and Kyoko sighed in assent as they continued to listen to Amore's tales.

Amore let her eyes travel across the small backyard as she observed the occupants. Tsuna's mom, Nana, had come home from shopping with a little girl that was the same age as Lambo. Tsuna had introduced the small Chinese girl as I-pin and Amore took great pleasure in talking to the girl in her native tongue, which Tsuna looked at her curiously for. I-pin was currently playing with Lambo as Nana happily kept an eye on them while she talked with Hana about a certain recipe the younger girl wanted to know how to cook. Ryohei was talking (more like yelling) with Yamamoto about how Yamamoto had been so EXTREME in the school's last baseball tournament. And Tsuna and Gokudera were...

After the appearance of Gokudera's older sister Bianchi, an older red haired woman, Gokudera was 'knocked' out of commission and Tsuna had to assist his friend to a bed so he could lie down. Bianchi had announced that she was going to make some snacks for the party which had all the male occupants – even Yamamoto – paling a little, making Amore wonder how bad of a cook Bianchi was for everyone to fear her cooking.

"Oh! I completely forgot!" Haru suddenly chirped loudly, grabbing everyone's attention. She hastily went over to the pack she had brought with her for decorations and started to pull out something that Amore couldn't see from behind her.

"What is it?"

"This!" Haru beamed as she swung around and displayed what was in her hands.

"A karaoke machine?" Hana questioned seeing the microphones attached to the side of the machine.

"Yep!" Haru nodded happily as she went quickly to set up the portable machine, "Haru thought it would be nice to have some entertainment and thought it would be fun to hear everyone's singing voices. There, all set!" She turned around proudly offering the microphones, "Who wants to go first?"

"I will! Come on Yamamoto!" Ryohei declared as he practically dragged the younger man with him to where Haru stood. Wrenching the microphones from her hands he passed one to Yamamoto just as he started blaring out lyrics to a random song. Yamamoto was more mellow-toned as he tried to keep up with the over enthusiastic boxer.

After the two guys was Haru and Kyoko who sang a perky duet that made Amore laugh as they did random poses as they sung. Hana was then forced by Nana to sing with her, Lambo, and I-pin, which didn't last long since Lambo left the song midway becoming bored with it.

"Your turn Amore-chan!" Nana laughed as she went to get the arrant Lambo off the fence around the back, I-pin following her.

"Good luck." Hana grumbled as she past by Amore.

"You're not going to sing with me?" Amore questioned. She almost regretted asking when Hana literally ran and hid behind, Ryohei who looked over his shoulder perplexed to see Hana hiding there.

Amore laughed playfully at her friend's action as she stepped up onto the deck of the backyard that they had dubbed as the stage. Amore knew the song she had chosen off by heart she didn't even need the microphone to project her voice, so she placed it down. Her friends looked at her curiously as the song began a one tune hum from a wind instrument which soon turned into a guitar solo of low tenors.

_You must always remember_

Amore started the first lines clear and strong. She loved the song, though originally in English she sang it to her new friends in Japanese.

_Life can be a challenge_  
_Life can seem impossible_  
_It's never easy when so much is on the line_

_But you can make a difference_  
_With courage you can set things right_  
_The gift to dream and make dreams real_  
_Is yours and mine_

Amore closed her eyes as she felt the music soothe her, just as it always did when she sang.

_The power of one_  
_Begins with believing_  
_It starts in the heart_  
_Then flows through the soul_  
_And changes the world_  
_Imagine how life will be_  
_When we stand in unity_  
_Each of us holds the key_  
_To the power of one_

Amore heard a sound from behind her and she peeked to see what it was. Tsuna and Gokudera stood in the doorway to the backyard. Both wore similar expressions of astonishment. She couldn't help but give them a playful wink as she closed her eyes again.

_Each of us is chosen_  
_There's a mission just for you_  
_Just look inside you'll be surprised_  
_What you can do_

_The power of one_  
_Begins with believing_  
_It starts in the heart_  
_Then flows through the soul_  
_And changes the world_  
_Imagine how life will be_  
_When we stand in unity_  
_Each of us holds the key_  
_To the power of one_

_And one by one_  
_We can make the world a much better place_

Amore couldn't help but think about how much the song reminded her of her own life. How much it represented her own soul…

_The power of one_  
_Begins with believing_  
_It starts in the heart_  
_Then flows through the soul_  
_And changes the world_  
_Imagine how life will be_  
_When we stand in unity_  
_Each of us holds the key_  
_It's inside of you and me_  
_Each of us holds the key_  
_To the power of one~_

Her voice drifted off with the last of the music. Everybody was silent as she opened her eyes and saw the looks of shock and wonderment on everyone's faces; except for I-pin and Lambo who both seemed to have been soothed into sleep by her voice. No applause was heard as they all couldn't seem to stop staring at her.

The silence was suddenly broken when clapping could be heard, accompanied by a high pitched voice, "I see you're still a captivating songbird, Amore."

Everyone turned to the one table that had survived the explosion. Sitting on a spot cleared of food was a baby wearing a black suit. He looked even younger than I-pin and Lambo. With his legs crossed casually, he tipped the fedora on his head in greeting; the chameleon on top staying on easily, "Ciaosu."

"Reborn!" Amore cried happily as she skipped over to the table and began chatting with the baby.

Tsuna gaped in disbelief as he watched the two of them, not even sure what he was witnessing.

_How does Amore-chan know a baby hitman?_

* * *

_**Haine-of-Winter: And… finished! Xd It took me forever (probably due to all the distractions online (hehe, I get distracted very easily)) Well, whatever! Now that this chapter is done expect more soon (well, maybe not soon, soon). -_- Next I will reveal a teeny-tiny bit of how Amore knows Reborn. I can't just tell you everything in the beginning. That would totally ruin the story! Xp Anyways… I'm hoping to introduce more characters in the next chapter. Wanna' know who? Well you'll have to read the next chapter to find out! x Aren't I just evil?**_

_**Reply to Reviews:**_

_**MikaUchiha666:**** Thanks for the review. Though I'm not too sure what you mean by 'semi'. Your 'semi' might be different from the 'semi' I'm thinking of so I don't want to make any assumptions yet… Please clarify in your next review.^^ ch7—You really think so? I was afraid that he didn't seem in character but it's a good thing that I was wrong. ^^ Thank you for loving this story. I'll try my best to keep you loving it! XD **_

_**Bloody-WhiteRose97DM****: I know how you feel. I always want to cry when I've seen one of the fanfics I love has reviewed. I'm happy that I almost brought you to tears. (Though I hope this time I might actually achieve^-^)**_

_**shugochara119****: Thank you for liking my little birthday chapter for Hibari. I owed him that much since this fic is about him and Amore. The whole chapter will actually play a part in the story later on. You'll have to continue reading to find out when though! Xd**_

_**The Last Page****: I explained in one of my earlier chapters that Hibari and Ryohei both skipped a grade. Though the teachers thought Ryohei to be a lost cause and pushed him ahead and Hibari just chose to skip to gr 10 when he finally went to high school. He also brought Kusakabe with him hence why he's still there. But to get to the math's of the matter it would be like this: gr 8 = is 16, turning 17 (Hibari and Ryohei) gr 8 = is 14, turning 15 (Tsuna and co.) - + 4 yrs to that and you get - gr 12 = 20 (H. and R.) gr 11 = 18 - I hope this has cleared up any misunderstandings. ^-^**_

_**tuwas1****: Thanks for reviewing. ^^ I know what you mean with the laziness. I get it all the time with my writing. Personally, I think your English is really good.**_

_…**: You have been deemed the Ellipsis since you review is blank. Thank you for the review, hopefully you'll keep on loving the story. X3**_

_**GOD****: What a name! XD I love your review! You just sound so excited for the next chapter it makes me want to write faster. Hopefully I will!**_

_**secretgirl2****: Thank you for the compliment. XD I'll try my best to update as much as possible over the summer, but I can't guarantee anything since I'll be working most days. Well, let's just hope, okay? **_

_**TheShadowedKissedAngel****: Thank you~ I love how Amore is one of your favorite OCs (though I wish she could be first). w This chapter may break that not to fast, not to slow development between Amore and Hibari… (I just hope it doesn't) I didn't think a story of mine could become addictive! I could kiss you for that comment! Thank you very very much! XD**_

_**Okay kiddies this is where I beg for your reviews.**_

_**So, pretty please…**_

_**Press the BUTTON below!**_


	9. Here We Go Again

_**Disclaimer: I do not own KHR or any of its characters, except for my Ocs that is. ^^**_

_**Hello once again to my faithful fans. I cannot believe how many people have favourite or reviewed in the last month since I've updated. Thank you to everyone for being so kind to me. *bows* I wasn't able to update because of the summer job I got, but now that it is over and school is starting *shivers in fright* I can semi-focus more on writing. So now that I have blabbered on enough I shall let you all enjoy this new chapter! Bon appetite! X3**_

* * *

"Umm... Amore-chan?"

"Yes?" Amore looked quizzically over her shoulder at a confused Tsuna.

"Hello, Dame-Tsuna." Reborn smirked titling his hat to the spiky brown haired boy, "What's got you all rattled?"

"Is that a question that really needs to be asked?" Tsuna sighed knowing full well the baby hitman was trying to wriggle under his skin.

"What are you two talking about?" Amore glanced between the two.

"It's nothing." Tsuna waved off the question as his face furrowed into concentration, "The thing I want to know is... How do you know Reborn, Amore-chan?"

Amore giggled as she placed her arms around Reborn in a friendly hug, "Reborn's my boyfriend." At Tsuna's expression of shock, and the sudden exploding noise from the kitchen, Amore smiled mischievously and let go of Reborn, "Just kidding!"

Tsuna let out a sigh of relief, just as something collided with the back of his head knocking him full throttle into the dirt. Amore's squeak of surprise and Reborn's chuckle were followed by other gasps, and one Gokudera yelling, "Sis, what'd you do to Juudaime?"

"Tsu-kun, are you okay?" Kyoko asked as she rushed over and helped him sit up.

"Y-yeah, I think so. What hit me?" he rubbed a hand on the back of his sore head, but quickly drew it away as he discovered that his hand was covered in indescribable goo, "What is this?"

"One of Bianchi's recipes." Reborn stated, watching amusedly as Tsuna's face blanched.

Thank god I didn't get killed, Tsuna breathed in relief as he accepted a towel from Bianchi in apology.

"Oops, sorry about that Tsuna-kun." Amore apologized lightly hitting her head, "I didn't know Bianchi and Reborn were already going out." Amore explained, having been told by a _very_ possessive Bianchi of her and the baby Reborn's relationship.

"That's okay." Tsuna smiled wiping off the rest of the goo in his hair. As he threw the towel into a garbage bag – knowing full well it wouldn't be of use anymore – he looked curious once more as he asked, "But seriously, how do you and Reborn know each other?"

"How? Hmmm... Let me think." Amore concentrated real hard as everyone looked at her with interest, just as curious as Tsuna for her answer, "Well, it was when I was younger. A little bit older than Lambo over there," she said as she pointed at the nine year old playing with Nana and I-Pin on the porch, "At the time I was really... depressed." A glimmer of an emotion entered her eyes, but as quickly vanished as she continued, "That's when I met Reborn and apparently he was the only one able to make me laugh."

"'Apparently?' "

"Well, I don't remember all that much of that time." Amore smiled at them, "But I do know ever since then, I and Reborn have kept in contact. Right, Reborn?" She turned to look at the baby sitting on the table behind her.

"Yep, that sums it up." Reborn tipped his fedora in agreement.

"I see..." Tsuna murmured in thought, but then his face grew astonished as he looked up quickly, a thought occurring to him, "Then does that mean-"

"Who wants cake?" Nana's voice suddenly ran out from the door to the patio. The group turned their attention to her as she stepped out of the house with a large white cake in her hands, "I made it this morning myself." She placed it on the table Reborn sat on, "Dig in!"

Tsuna's question was forgotten, as all the occupants went to get a piece of Nana's delicious cake, except for Amore, who watched the group with a pleased smile on her face.

"You haven't told them." Reborn simply said as he took a bite of the cake he had mercilessly stolen off of Tsuna.

"No, but I didn't know until I saw you here that they had anything to do with _that_." Amore gazed at the group of friends before her, her ruby eyes flashing with hidden knowledge, "I already know Tsuna-kun, Gokudera-kun, and Yamamoto-kun, are involved." She tilted her head in the direction of Ryohei and Gokudera who were arguing over something, "And I'm betting Ryohei-san is a part of _it_ as well."

"You have good eyes." Reborn laughed his mischievous smirk back into place.

"Ah, but apparently not good enough since your smirk tells me I'm missing something." She confidently stated as her eyes examined the crowd in front of her. They landed on Lambo as he shot after I-Pin in a game of tag, "Young Lambo is _one_ too, I assume."

"You never cease to amaze me, Amore-chan." Reborn chirped with a shrug before he jumped off the table to land on the wall that surrounded the back.

"Are you leaving?"

"Yep, I have some business to take of. Ciaossu Amore-chan." Reborn smirked before he jumped off and disappeared behind the wall.

"You're not going to tell me the other two?" Amore briefly pouted at where Reborn disappeared.

"Amore-chan?" Amore turned to see Haru looking at her curiously, "Where's Reborn?"

"He left to do something." Amore replied, but then looked perplexed as Haru stared at her with imploring eyes, "Umm... is there something you want to ask, Haru-chan?"

"Can you sing for us again?" Haru blurted out excitedly, "Please? Please with a giant delicious cherry on top?"

"Ok, ok." Amore laughed as Haru began dragging her to the patio that would be the stage.

* * *

"Come on, Gokudera! Give me the cancer stick!" Haru demanded jumping at Gokudera for the cigarette hanging out of his mouth.

"Oi, back off!" Gokudera jumped out of Haru's reach. He looked angrily at Amore and Yamamoto who was walking with them on the way home, "Baseball nut, stop the madwoman!"

"Maa, Maa, Gokudera she's your girlfriend. You should listen to her for once." Yamamoto grinned crossing his arms behind his head casually.

"You stupid-" Gokudera was in mid-yell when Haru suddenly appeared in front of him, surprising a yell from him as she snatched the cigarette from his mouth and threw it on the ground, squishing it under foot, "HARU..." a vein in his neck popped out as he let Haru have it. She yelled right on back as she explained what the cancer stick was doing to his lungs.

"Are you sure they're really girlfriend and boyfriend?" Amore whispered as she and Yamamoto trailed behind the bickering couple.

"Yep, I had the pleasure of finding them lip locking in the classroom after school last year." Yamamoto fake shivered jokingly.

"I can't imagine the horror you went through my friend." She played along patting Yamamoto on the arm sympathetically.

"Well, I guess the meaning, 'opposites attract' hit those two right on the head." He winked at her setting her into a fit of giggles.

"Oh," Amore stopped at a busy crosswalk seeing how she had to turn to get to her complex, "This is where I leave you guys." She stopped pointing down the busy street.

"Okay, see you tomorrow." Yamamoto smiled as Haru and Gokudera continued their argument completely ignoring Amore and Yamamoto.

"Till tomorrow," Amore smiled before walking the other way, Yamamoto's laughter followed her as she heard him trying to calm down Gokudera and Haru.

She hummed a tune under her breath as she weaved through the crowded streets. On the way she passed by a small general store with a bulletin board outside its windows. She was going to pass it by without thought until her eyes caught the words, 'part-time jobs'. She paused examining the board with a new interest.

_Let's see... Part-time job for a maid cafe_, she shook her head in doubt. Her scars wouldn't make her appealing to customers, which was part of the job description, _Next, part time grocery... Nope, I wouldn't be able to deal with that all day. Karate... Clinic worker... Construction..._ Her eyes roamed the pages each job getting less and less appealing. She sighed in defeat and was about to give up when one particular paper caught her eye. The paper was a dark blue with clear white letter's explaining the job. A glass of wine was held in the hands of the silhouetted woman that popped out of the place's name, "'Lady Wine'" Amore murmured as she read on. At the end of the description of the job Amore was beaming, _It's perfect! They want someone a little older, but I'll work on something when I go to the interview_, She snatched the paper off the billboard and rushed straight home to call the contact number on the bottom of the page.

* * *

PE was in the midst of excitement as class 2-B shouted and cheered for their teams. Amore was on the sidelines with Kyoko as they cheered for Yamamoto who was their next batter to the plate. Tsuna had amazingly made it to third. Gokudera, who was stationed there for the other team, was the likely cause for the brown haired boy's success. Everyone knew that Yamamoto was the star player for the baseball team and the imminent defeat was seen in the sagging shoulders of about everyone on the other team, except for Haru who was her over-cheerful self and Gokudera who refused to lose. Hana sighed in defeat in left field knowing full well they were doomed.

"Isn't this exciting?" Kyoko asked between cheers as Yamamoto cracked the ball with a loud smack and the ball soared far into the air.

"Go Yamamoto-kun!" Amore cheered watching Yamamoto sprint to first in a flash, "Faster, Tsuna-kun! Run faster!" she encouraged with bright eyes as she watched Tsuna pick up speed.

"Amore-chan?"

"Hmm? Did you say something?" Amore turned her head away from the action to Kyoko, "Umm... Is something wrong?" Amore enquired as Kyoko was doubled over in a fit of giggles.

"It's nothing," Kyoko waved a final laugh as she straightened and wiped a tear from her eye; "You just looked so cute, your eyes shining bright. You reminded me of a little kid."

Amore blushed a soft pink before she set her eyes to the field, "I've never done things like this that often."

"Really?" Kyoko looked surprised as she stared at her friend.

"Yeah," Amore replied distractedly, her brows furrowed in uncertainty, "Hey, what's Hana doing?" she pointed to where the brunette was grumbling to herself, and Amore could make out her lips moving, "'I don't even... know why we bother to try...?' She's being a little pessimistic." Amore pointed out with a pout.

Kyoko was about to ask how Amore could possibly know what Hana was saying when a large gasp was heard from Amore and she jumped up off the bench, eyes wide with unbelief. Startled, Kyoko turned her head just as Hana opened her arms in what looked to be a shrug and something white landed with a thud in her gloved hand. The entire field froze as Hana stared shockingly into her hand and lifted it up to show that she had the ball, signifying an automatic out for Yamamoto.

A short silence of disbelief followed before loud cheering was heard from the other team. Yamamoto just laughed care-freely and gave Hana a thumb up before walking to his teams' bench: all of them staring with mouth's wide open. Hana still dazed and amazed threw the ball to a teammate before they touched Tsuna out, who had stopped midway to home to stare in disbelief. The game continued as both boys sat down on the bench beside Amore and Kyoko. The other team started attacking with a new strength, believing that they could actually take back the game and win.

"Too bad that wasn't a home run." Amore sighed.

"I don't even know how Hana was able to catch your ball," Kyoko turned to Yamamoto with sparkling eyes and a wide smile, "But I think it's amazing that she was able to."

"I'm not really sure how she did it either," Yamamoto laughed, before he rubbed his chin thoughtfully, "Maybe, I should recruit her for the baseball team..."

"I'm pretty sure it was a fluke." Amore laughed, knowing that information for a fact, "Actually, just before, she was-"

"Tsuki Amore."

Surprised, Amore tilted her head back until she was staring up into Kusakabe's face on the other side of the fence.

"Kusakabe-san?" Amore blinked. Her friends turned in surprise to see the Vice President of the Prefects standing behind them, while others on the bench shifted half fearfully away, "How have you been?" she smiled up innocently standing to face the older man.

The little tilt in his lips indicated he was amused as he answered, "Good."

"How come you're here? Are you doing PE too?"

"No." Kusakabe coughed into his hand before he continued, "Kyo-san requests your presence in his office immediately."

"Hibari? How come he has to see Amore-chan?" Yamamoto stood with a smile that was smaller than his usual ones.

"That is none of your business." Kusakabe turned his attention back to Amore, "If you will follow me." And with that he turned and started back across the field to the school.

"Guess I should go see what Hibari-san wants." Amore smiled at her friends.

"Do you want us to come with you?" Yamamoto asked a faint glimmer of worry in his eyes.

"Oh, no, you don't need to do that." Amore waved frantically. She went to follow Kusakabe, but paused as she passed Yamamoto. She grabbed his sleeve and indicated him to lower his head. When his head was level with hers she whispered so he would be the only one to hear, "You don't have to worry about Hibari-san anymore. We've kind of resolved our differences." Amore smiled up at him when he lifted his head again.

"'Kind of resolved'" he grinned unsure of her words.

"Well, there are still some _kinks_." Amore winked with a laugh before she waved to a very confused Tsuna and Kyoko and rushed to catch up to Kusakabe.

"What was that about?" Kyoko asked tilting her head to watch Amore as she talked to Kusakabe.

"I have no clue." Tsuna shrugged just as mystified as Kyoko.

"You probably don't want to know." Yamamoto murmured, earning two identical looks of puzzlement from them.

* * *

Amore finally caught up to the Elvis style haired man, "You could have waited a little longer." Amore explained as she tried to stay in stride with Kusakabe's longer legs.

"You shouldn't have delayed then." Kusakabe replied in a matter-of-fact tone.

"You do have a point." Amore agreed as they started up the stairs.

Looking up to him she asked curious, "What exactly does Hibari-san want to talk to me about?"

"He didn't tell me. He only ordered me to bring you to his office."

"Oh, I see."

"Here we are." They had stopped in front of a door on the floor of her classroom. Looking up Amore saw the unmistakable sign that declared the room to be the infamous Reception Room of the Disciplinary Committee. Amore thought about it and realised Hana had overblown the screaming of the poor victims in Hibari's office rumour. They didn't hear it every day, but at least once a week, tops. That just showed her how much power the Committee had over the school. And how much power Hibari held over the Committee.

"Wait here a moment." Kusakabe ordered, snapping Amore out of her thoughts as she watched him slide open the door and enter the room. "I've brought Tsuki Amore." She tried to peek into the room, but Kusakabe's body blocked her view and she only heard Hibari's voice reply with an 'enter' before he finally moved and ushered her into the room.

Amore had thought that there would be blood everywhere from the victims of Hibari's tonfa, but she was surprised to see that the room was tidy and clean: not a splotch of blood anywhere. In fact she would have to say that the room seemed to be the nicest out of all the rooms in the school, even more so than the principal's office. There was an expensive looking couch beside a small coffee table. A potter with a small palm tree was situated in a corner by a case filled with trophies from various school activities.

Her eyes continued to take in the room until her they landed on the huge desk with a mountain of papers lying on it. As they shifted to the large comfy looking chair she stopped in her tracks, eyes growing a little wide in disbelief.

Hibari was sitting calmly in the chair reviewing the paper in front of him, a slim pair of glasses resting on the bridge of his nose.

_Ok, now I've seen it all_, Amore numbly thought unaware that Hibari had dismissed Kusakabe; _Only in my mind will I ever admit that Hibari-san is sexy in glasses. There I did it! I admitted it._ An involuntary blush dusted her cheeks until the surprise of the door sliding shut behind her chased it away and she looked confusedly at the door where Kusakabe had been.

"Why did Kusakabe-san leave?" Amore asked as she turned her attention back to the Head Prefect.

He raised an eyebrow as he responded, "I ordered him to leave."

"Why did you do that?"

"It is not your place to question me, herbivore." Hibari's metallic eyes glared at her in annoyance.

"S-sorry." Amore stared meekly at the floor, "W-what was it you wanted to see me for?"

"Come here."

Not sure she heard right she looked up to see Hibari glowering at her and when she didn't comply right away he flicked his hand in a 'come here' motion. She quickly complied. She observed him, puzzled, as he opened a draw in his desk and produced an envelope flicking it onto the desk in front of her. On the front was her name. She couldn't help but tilt her head in perplexity, "What's this?"

Hibari scowled at the envelope, "It's a letter from Shu."

"Shugorei?" she repeated as she picked up the envelope and started to open it. She heard him mumble something and saw from the corner of her eye that he had twisted the seat around so all she could see was a shock of his black hair.

Getting the letter completely opened, she carefully unfolded the paper inside. Reading the carefully printed words she couldn't help but smile;

_Dear Amore-chan,_

_Thanks for the delicious cake. Personally I love chocolate, but vanilla is always great too. So I take it the cake is a sign of your good health, hmm?_

_You must come back and visit soon. I have to know how you made that delicious cake. After all, I'm a big sucker for sweets!_

_From Shugorei_

_P.S. Kyo-kun had some too. He won't admit it, but he liked it._

At the last line, Amore couldn't help but giggle out loud at the image of Hibari enjoying the cake she had made.

"What's so funny?"

A little startled she glanced up to see Hibari staring at her intently from behind his glasses.

"I-It's nothing!" Amore stuttered as she tucked the letter away. Avoiding his eyes, with a blush across her cheeks, she took a step back from the desk, "Well, if that's all you needed me for. I'll be going now-"

"Don't move." Hibari commanded as he slipped his glasses off and placed them on his desk. He slowly rose from his chair and strode around the desk with deliberate motion as he kept her ruby eyes locked with his metallic ones.

Amore felt frozen as she was helplessly transfixed by the skylark's movements. Her eyes stay locked with his until she could feel his breath fan her cheek as he bent his head down to her level.

"Sing"

The spell broken from the sudden command, she looked at him befuddled, "I beg your pardon?"

"Are you disobeying my order?" he wasn't glaring but instead looked amused by the prospect.

"N-no."

"Good, now sing." He commanded as he stood straight and walked past her.

"What song?" she asked as she watched Hibari settle himself on the couch.

He rested his hands on his chest and closed his eyes, "Namimori song."

Amore nodded her head in understanding and started to sing the school's song. She kept the tune soft since she knew Hibari was trying to get some sleep. It didn't take her long before she was finished. She briefly gazed at the sleeping Prefect's face. Her lips curved into a slight smile as she went to tiptoe past him.

"Where do you think you're going?"

"Eek!" Amore squeaked as Hibari's hand suddenly snatched her wrist pulling her down on top of him. A deep blush spread completely over her cheeks as she tried to pry her wrist loose, "Aw! C-come on Hibari-san! I-I have to go back to class!" she cried as she tried to struggle out of his grip, to no avail.

"Hn" Hibari ignored her as he sat up – her in his lap – and encircled her waist with his other arm and let go of her wrist.

"Sheesh! I sing you a nice lullaby and this is the treatment I get?" she mumbled under her breath as she looked up into his face, "Why-"

"Why did you declare that you hated me?" he frowned as the question popped out of his mouth without thought.

"Excuse me?" she blinked at the sudden change in subject.

"Do not make me bite you to death, herbivore." His glare returned at her blank stare.

"Umm, well- That's-"

"Spit it out."

"It's because of these!" she exclaimed in exasperation lifting an arm to show the many scars slicing along it.

"So?" he simply said not realising any significance in the markings.

"Well, I got so mad, because well, because," she saw his impatience rising and she rushed to finish, "I realized that the mark you left would scar and my neck is one of the places where there is no scars and..."

"And?" his annoyance flared in his onyx eyes as he stared at the girl.

"And I just don't want anymore! Okay?" she pouted her ruby eyes refusing to meet his.

"_This_," his eyes flared as he suddenly placed his lips on the purple scar, nipping it with his teeth. Amore yelped in surprise as he continued, "Is _my_ mark. It marks _you_ as my prey. Understand?" He continued to glare until she nodded her head, dumbfounded. "Good." He smirked before he placed his mouth beside her ear and breathed seductively, "Next time, make the cake apple." And he suddenly released her, lying back down on the couch, "You're dismissed."

"Y-yes sir." Amore carefully clambered off him and before he could even try to catch her again, left the room as fast as possible: her face five times redder than before.

Hibari heard the door shut. In satisfaction he smirked and let his mind wander to sleep.

* * *

The sun was low in the sky over Namimori. Amore sat on a bench in Namimori park watching the clouds in the sky with a satisfied smile.

After school she had immediately gone to the address for the interview with the owner of the place that Amore wanted to work at. All had gone surprisingly well and she had been hired. She only needed to hand the form that allowed her to have a part-time job to the school, informing them that she was working. Finally she was going to be able to buy more food on her own and pay the rent without Bella's help.

She continued to stare at the clouds in glee as she watched them changing their shape with the wind. A surprised laugh escaped from her mouth as one cloud shifted to an image that resembled Hibird except the cloud had added on a swirling pillar to the bird's head, making it seem like Hibird had an Elvis styled haircut. Her laughs continued as Hibird shifted to Kusakabe, then to Tsuna, then to Gokudera, until she lost count of whose face appeared. The swirling Elvis haircut cloud stayed in the same place the entire time. By the end of it, Amore was doubled over on the bench, laughs raking her entire body.

"Mind if I ask what seems so funny?"

Amore looked up surprised at the mysterious male voice. Her eyes met two different colours as his blue and red eyes shined with amusement. She noticed the strangeness of his red eye that had the kanji for 'six' in it. His catlike smile indicated a sly nature as he comfortably sat down beside her on the bench. He gazed at her from the corner of his mysterious eye, "Are you going to answer the question anytime soon?"

Blushing, Amore looked at him embarrassed, "Ummm, what was the question again?"

The man burst into laughter, "Kufufufu! You're amusing!" He grinned at her, causing her to blush even more in embarrassment, "I asked what seemed so funny? You were laughing so hard I could hear you from over there." The man pointed the short distance to the other side of the park.

"I-I was laughing at f-funny clouds!" Amore stuttered frantically explaining her laughing outburst, "I-I kept on seeing people wearing an Elvis haircut in the clouds!"

"Elvis haircut?" the man's eyebrow rose in amusement.

"Yeah," she smiled in confirmation as she confidently explained, "There's this one committee at my school that has a vice president with that hair style. Actually the whole committee has it, well, except for the president that is."

"You're talking about the Disciplinary Committee of Namimori High, right?"

"How did you know?"Amore gaped surprised at the man's knowledge.

"Your uniform is from Namimori High," the man pointed at her clothing with a gloved finger, "And I have had the... _pleasure_, of meeting the Head Prefect, myself." The man smiled mischievously, "Also the Committee itself has enough power over the town to be feared by most."

"Really?"

"Yes."

"I didn't know that..." Amore murmured with a thoughtful look, _that's why I sometimes see Committee members walking around in town on duty._

"You really didn't know that?" the man gazed at her with pleasure as Amore snapped out of her musings.

"Well I'm new to town, so I've still much to learn." Amore admitted with a sheepish smile.

"Really? What's your name?" the man asked offering his hand to her.

"Tsuki Amore." She responded shaking his offered hand, "And yours?"

"I'm-"

"I think I saw him go this way!"

Turning her head with a jolt, Amore observed as a blond spiky haired man wearing a green uniform – which she believed to be Kokuyo High's – appeared on the other side of the park. He looked straight at Amore and she couldn't help but notice the scar on his face: running cheek to cheek. Another man appeared behind him at his call and she observed that the glasses wearing man had a bar code on his left cheek.

Curious, she watched the men turn at the call of a quiet female voice. Amore's eyebrow rose in interest as a younger girl appeared who had a striking resemblance to the man that Amore was talking to. She could see the girl was shy because of the barely audible voice she was talking with and the way she clutched her hands in front of her chest in a kind of defensive position.

"By any chance-" Amore gaped at the empty space where the man she had been talking to had been. She looked this way and that wondering how he had disappeared so fast.

"Hey, you there!"

Startled, Amore looked up to see the man with blond hair pointing one long nailed finger at her. Perplexed, she pointed to herself, "Me?"

"Yeah, you!" And with that he jogged over to where she sat, the other man and girl following him. His eyes seemed to be always glaring as he requested, "Have you seen a guy come through here recently?"

"Guy?" Amore tapped her chin in thought, "Well, a lot of people have walked through this park since I've been sitting here-"

"Ken you have to be more specific." The glasses man disciplined pushing his glasses back on the bridge of his nose.

"Okay, fine!" Ken rounded back to face Amore, "Have you seen a guy with dark blue hair?" As an afterthought he quickly added, "Oh, and it's shaped like a pineapple!"

"Umm," As soon as 'pineapple' left Ken's mouth, she swore that she could feel a murderous aura emanating from behind the bench that she was seated on.

_I guess he doesn't like pineapples_, Amore sweated as she pointed in a random direction, "I think I saw him go that way a minute ago."

"Cool! Let's go, Chikusa!" Ken called as he ran in the direction Amore had indicated.

Amore heard Chikusa mumble 'idiot' under his breath before he turned, bowed to her and started to jog after his friend, "Come on, Chrome." He called to the girl and she quickly bowed to Amore and followed after the other two.

"They're gone." Amore assured when the group was out of sight. With a smile she got up and faced the bench, waiting for the man to come out of hiding.

"Kufufu, they never give up." The man laughed as he emerged from the bush wiping leaves and dirt off of him.

"How come you're hiding from them?" Amore looked up into the man's face with curiosity, "They're your friends aren't they?"

"I just happen to like to tease my companions more than others." He winked with a nonchalant shrug, "It's in my nature."

"Ok, 'Mr. Tease'. By the way you've got dirt on your face." Amore laughed before she reached up and brushed a speck of dirt off the man's cheek.

"Thank you." The man smiled his different coloured eyes dancing with enjoyment.

"You're welcome," she smiled back as she retracted her hand, "You've still haven't told me your name, 'Mr. Tease'."

"My apologies." He apologised and made a flourished bow to her, "My name is-"

"Rokudo Mukuro." A familiar voice growled out.

Gasping in surprise, Amore stared over Mukuro's back as Hibari strode into the park with both his tonfa out.

"Ah, Hibari Kyoya, I didn't think I would be seeing you today." Mukuro rose and smirked over his shoulder at the Prefect, "What a delighted surprise."

"Not as surprised as I am." Hibari smirked in malice as he stopped a few strides away from them. His eyes flickered to Amore, briefly, "If you don't want to be bitten to death, I suggest you leave now herbivore." He recommended with a stern voice as his eyes focused back on Mukuro.

"Kufufu, well this is interesting," Mukuro observed as he situated himself right beside Amore, "You know our little skylark personally, I take it?" She nodded in response as Mukuro placed a hand on her shoulder. Hibari's smirk faded and turned to a glare at the sight. Seeing this Mukuro couldn't help but laugh out loud, "Kufufu, I see..."

"'See?'" Amore glanced up at Mukuro in incomprehension.

"Oh, it's nothing." Mukuro waved the question off.

"Rokudo Mukuro, step away from the herbivore." Hibari growled as he took a menacing step towards them.

"And if I don't?" the blue haired man challenged with a cat smirk on his face, "What will you do, mighty Prefect?"

"I'll bite you to death." Hibari threatened with an icy smirk.

Before she knew it Hibari had disappeared and reappeared in front of Mukuro, his tonfa already striking for the smirking man. One minute she had been on the ground and the next she found herself in the air as Mukuro jumped with her in his arms away from the strike. There was a large explosion of dust as the ground cracked from the impact.

Mukuro landed on a bench, Amore safely within his arms, his taunting grin turned to that of an excited child's as Hibari turned his scowl to them, "You've improved."

"Hn" Hibari ignored him as he strode over to them with menacing steps.

"Um, Mukuro-san-"

"Just Mukuro will do." He interrupted Amore, keeping his eyes on the approaching Prefect.

"Um, Mukuro, I really don't think it's smart to tease Hibari-san." Amore pointed out, taking in note Hibari's menacing aura of bloodlust.

"Probably not," Mukuro agreed with a laugh, "But it's fun to do it." He shrugged dismissively, "Besides, he has a score to settle with me anyways."

"What do you mean?" Amore enquired, puzzled by the man's cryptic words.

"I mean-"

"Be quiet." Hibari ordered as he leapt for them. Once again missing as Mukuro leapt up into the air with Amore. They landed safely on the ground far away from Hibari, "Stop running away."

"I'm only trying to keep poor Amore-chan safe." Mukuro assured with a smile, tightening his hold on said girl.

"Release the herbivore and fight me, Rokudo Mukuro." Hibari scowled holding his tonfa ready for another attack.

"No, no." Mukuro waggled a finger as if he were scolding a child, "It's much more entertaining having her around."

"What do you mean?"

"Kufufu..."

"Hey! I think I heard him over here!" Ken's loud voice abruptly traveled to the park as approaching footsteps sounded.

"Oh, well. I guess playtime is over." Mukuro sighed playfully. He relinquished his hold on Amore and set her feet onto the ground. "Bye, bye, Amore-chan. I had fun playing with you." He bent his head and placed his lips on her cheek in a swift kiss, "I'll see you around." He smirked as she nodded dumbly, her face a bright pink. He turned to Hibari to observe the Prefect's reaction.

Unexpectedly, Hibari had lowered his tonfa and was only staring at them with an emotionless face. Mukuro shrugged at the man's attempt of masking his emotions knowing full well that Hibari was boiling in fury. He turned his back to the Prefect, waved a 'we'll finish this another time' and leisurely walked out of the park, disappearing as he rounded the corner to where Ken's voice had come from.

_That was odd..._

Amore turned her gaze to Hibari who was still staring at where Mukuro left with an undistinguishable mask.

"Hibari-san?" she took a cautious step towards him... and suddenly found his tonfa at her throat. Gulping loudly she hurriedly stepped back only to have him to step forward. Her brows furrowed in annoyance as she fixed her eyes on his face, "What are you doing?"

"It's time that we finished what we started, herbivore." He simply stated and brought his arm back to jab her in the neck.

He blinked in surprise when she lifted her hand and used it to change the tonfa's direction. Hopping a few steps away, she kept herself out of his reach when he took a step towards her.

"Stop running." he glared at her with furious eyes.

"What made you want to fight me so suddenly?" Amore questioned as she change her direction to the parks exit.

"You're my prey," his lips titled into a smirk, "My prey never gets away."

"You've said that before." A frown lit Amore's face as she remembered their first encounter after six years.

"Hn" Hibari agreed remembering when he had her cornered before.

"W-well, I don't want to fight you anymore." She blurted out stopping right at the exit to the park.

Hibari, unprepared, stopped dead in his tracks glaring at the girl.

"I-I was... _different_ back then," Amore described clutching her arm in a timid manner, "I-I shouldn't have agreed."

"It doesn't matter what you think," Amore watched him warily as he stepped forward with his tonfa ready; "I'll bite you to death for disobeying me."

"Disobeying?" Amore wondered aloud, but had no more time to think as Hibari began to charge her. Jumping away from the tonfa jabbing at her she ran just ahead of Hibari down the sidewalk, just avoiding getting hit. Her dodging led them closer to busier streets and soon they were approaching a particularly crowded street. Hopping over a tonfa aimed at her feet she turned her back to Hibari and ran into the crowd.

Hibari lost sight of her in the mass of people and by the time he located her found her on the other side of the street. On the edge of a large crowd she bowed to Hibari in a sorry manner and vanished from sight. All the while she ran she could Hibari's glare following after her.

* * *

Amore entered her home with a sigh of relief closing the door behind her. She heard Lily meow to her in greeting as she slid down to the floor wearily, gazing up at the ceiling.

Lily padded over to her master and started to rub her head against Amore for attention. Amore smiled as she obeyed the cat and graciously rubbed the feline under the chin. She had the cat purring in minutes.

_If only my life was as carefree as Lily's_, she sighed thinking about how she ran all the way home, fearful that Hibari had still been chasing her, _then maybe I wouldn't be having all these problems._

Reluctantly, she stood – lifting Lily in her arms – and walked to the kitchen where she set the cat down to put more food into her bowl. She made herself a quick cheap meal and ate it half drowsily as fatigue started to catch up with her. She threw the container out and headed to her room. She didn't even bother to get changed and instead collapsed on her bed with a _poof_.

Her mind was wavering into sleep when she sat up with a start.

"My bag!" she exclaimed as she recalled that she had forgotten it beside the bench in the park. Not tired any longer, she rushed for the door and slipped on her shoes in a hurry. Lily meowed at her and Amore paused to look back at her cat, "Do you want to come with me?" as if in agreement the cat padded confidently to where she waited. With a small amused smile Amore threw the door open and stepped out with Lily. It didn't occur to her until she had locked the door and was heading for the stairs that she might run into Hibari again. That made her pause, but quickly she shook her head and continued on.

_What's the likely chance that I'll run into him again?_

* * *

_**Haine-of-Winter: Finally! I was supposed to have this done yesterday but for some reason this chapter took even longer than usual. Mukuro, Ken, Chikusa and Chrome have all been introduced! Though, to me, all of them seem kind of Ocish, especially Mukuro. I had to work with him the most and I'm only hoping that I got even a smidge of his personality right.**_

_** I had a lot of fun with the baseball scene the most since Hana actually did something for a change. I've grown to really like her character. ^^ Speaking about Hana, if you noticed I mentioned the comment that Hana made in chapter 2, about the screams of Hibari's victims. Also I reused the line that Hibari said in chapter 1, which Amore points out. Oh, and I added the whole 'apple cake' thing from the special chapter in this as well. Just so you all know. ^^**_

_** The reason why Amore won't fight Hibari is revealed. But even that leaves many questions to be answered. What's so 'different' about Amore? How come she was able to dodge all of Hibari's attacks? What exactly is the 'that' she mentioned to Reborn? And I bet you all are wondering what Hibari meant when he said she 'disobeyed' him. I'll just let you mull all those questions over until the next chapter. Xd**_

_**Reply to Reviews:**_

_**MikaUchiha666:**** Oh, okay. I get what you mean. ^^ Yeah, he really is controlling, as you probably saw in this chapter. You can tell that she's actually close to Reborn when she knows what he's thinking about from a mere smirk. I hope to be able to write a lot of scenes with the two interacting later on. Watch out for them. ^^**_

_**Bloody-WhiteRose97DM:**** Technically they haven't kissed (well except inside the special chapter). It's mostly Hibari harassing her. He's a sexy harasser I might add. /**_

_**TheShadowedKissedAngel:**** I totally agree. Hibari is a vampire! w I love how you're so enthusiastic in your reviews. They always make me laugh.**_

_**KizunaOtakuArashi:**** Thank you for the review. I'm honored that my fanfic is the first you've read in the KHR community. I hope I can keep pleasing you. XD**_

_**Lena-chii****:**** Thanks for the love! w Here's the update you've been patiently waiting for.**_

_**I've figured out this is the best place to place a review request. ^^**_

_**Right over the button I need you to press.**_

_**So please...**_

_**Press the button below**_


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